Bronze drink buckets

Bangkok, 1954. Charles Smutkochorn noticed something: American visitors, travelling from Guam in the years after the war, were searching for authentic Thai souvenirs, and they were drawn, in particular, to the monk bowl - a vessel cast from solid bronze, made by hand, unchanged for centuries. They also, being Western, wanted to eat with flatware. Charles saw a connection that no one else had made.

He worked closely with eight brothers - young men who had learned their craft making bronze monk bowls for temple use - to refine the technique and develop designs for bronze flatware. Until that moment, the material was effectively reserved for royalty and the elite. Bronze was chosen for a reason: when it comes into contact with poison, it changes colour and tarnishes. For centuries, that property made it valuable in ways that had nothing to do with aesthetics.

Charles's first retail shop opened at 1250 Charoen Krung Road, on a stretch then flanked by three of Bangkok's most prominent hotels. The business grew. Siam Bronze became Thailand's largest manufacturer and exporter of bronze flatware. More than fifty retail stores sourced from them along Charoen Krung Road alone.

The company is now run by the second and third generations of the Smutkochorn family. The "Thai Dancer" pattern, crafted in 1954, remains in production. Siam Bronze Factory is the only company commercially manufacturing hand-made solid bronze flatware in Thailand - and one of the last remaining in the world.

Each piece is hand-made in Bangkok, exclusive to Australia through The Leopard.