Benjarong Porcelain

Benjarong means five colours, and the ware began as porcelain commissioned by the Ayutthaya and early Bangkok courts from Chinese kilns, sent with Thai designs to be enamelled - later the enamelling moved to Thailand and the form became a domestic craft. The decoration is dense: repeating patterns of thepphanom figures, flames, lotus and vine covering the whole surface in raised enamel, traditionally with gold, applied by hand with a fine brush over a fired white body and fired again. Ban Don Kai Dee in Samut Sakhon is the village where the trade concentrated after a revival from the 1980s, and workshops there are open to visit - painters work in the open and will show the process, pieces are sold at workshop prices, and some places run short painting classes. The work is slow and skilled and the prices reflect it; cheap benjarong sold elsewhere is usually transfer-printed rather than hand-painted.

Highlights

• The hand painting - dense enamel patterns applied with a fine brush.
• The five colours - the traditional palette the name refers to, usually with gold.
• The village workshops - painters working in the open, open to visitors.
• The court origin - porcelain commissioned from Chinese kilns for the Thai court.

When to go

November to February, on weekday working hours when the painters are at their benches. Two hours covers a workshop visit; classes take longer and need arranging.

Good to know

These are working family businesses, not a museum - ask before photographing. Hand-painted work is expensive because it is slow; much cheap benjarong elsewhere is printed. A car is needed; there is no useful public transport.

Nearby

Samut Sakhon and the Mahachai fish market are south; Bangkok is east.