Khmer Style Bronze Seated Crowned Buddha 24in Lost-Wax Hollow Cast Meditation

Large Khmer-style bronze of a crowned, adorned figure seated in meditation (dhyana mudra), 24 inches high. Tiered conical crown, beaded collar, armlets, elongated earlobes with earrings, incised sampot at the waist. Hollow lost-wax cast with an open base.

PERIOD — READ THIS BEFORE ASKING. This is offered as KHMER STYLE, 20th century. It is NOT represented as an Angkor-period antiquity and carries no provenance documentation. The style follows Angkor-era models, as most work in this tradition does; the casting technique used here (lost wax over a clay core) is the same one still used by foundries in Thailand and Cambodia today, so it dates nothing on its own. The remnant orange core material visible inside the base is evidence of hollow casting, not of age.

PATINA. Even mid-brown surface with green confined to the recesses. Published authentication criteria for excavated bronze look for several corrosion compounds at once (red cuprite, green malachite, blue azurite, black tenorite) distributed unevenly and at differing depths, plus crystal structure embedded into the metal rather than a film sitting on top. This piece does not obviously show that layering, and shows no chloride pitting or bronze disease. Stated plainly so no buyer draws their own conclusion from a photograph.

SIZE IS THE POINT. At 24 inches this is well above the size normally offered in this category — specialist dealers in Khmer-style bronze list 16 inch examples around $1,200 and 18 inch around $1,100, with nothing larger commonly stocked. Priced against that curve.

CONDITION. Very good. Stable and displayable, good weight, no breaks or repairs seen. Casting pit marks and minor finish losses consistent with a cast bronze of this scale.

If you are a buyer who wants an antiquity with documented pre-1970 provenance, this is not that piece and we will not pretend otherwise.