A fine Sukhothai bronze head of Buddha, Thailand, c.14th century, with arched eyebrows and downcast eyes, formerly inlaid, the tightly curled hair with domed usnisa, his ears with elongated lobes, 35cm high Provenance: Private family collection; thought to have been acquired in the 1980s from Michael Pearson, Bond Street on the advice of the late Robert Kleiner.The distinctive style of the short-lived Sukhothai kingdom is perhaps the most characteristic and admired, as well as the earliest, of the core Thai schools of sculpture, flourishing mostly in the fourteenth century. For a very closely related head of Buddha in the National Museum, Bangkok, see Jean Boisselier, The Heritage of Thai Sculpture, New York 1975, pl.12, p.31.