Title
Offering tray
Year/Period
Around 1902
Region
Bangkok, Thailand
Object Type
Material
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 8.7 x 20.2 x 20.4 cm
Accession No.
2021-00446
Collection of
This is a gold phan, a footed tray ornamented with designs resembling the cotton rosemallow flower pattern (lai phuttan). People in Thailand use phan for presenting food and supplies to Buddhist monks. Gold, however, was reserved for use by royalty and high-ranked nobility, marking this tray as one used for royal ceremonial purposes.In fact, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam gave this phan to Admiral Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu (1852-1932), the first and only foreign-born commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Navy. At this occasion in 1902, de Richelieu was awarded the Knight Grand Commander of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao, and also retired from service to return to Denmark.
