Stainless steel chopstick rest
Stainless steel chopstick rest
Siam Bronze Factory
A chopstick rest is a small object with a precise purpose: to keep a pair of chopsticks off the table between bites. In Japan, where the etiquette of the table has been considered in detail for centuries, it is as deliberate a presence as any other piece on the table. It says that the meal is being taken seriously.
Made from Japanese 18-8 stainless steel, hand-formed in the Smutkochorn family's Bangkok workshop - where the family has worked since 1954, applying the same craft they developed in bronze to a material that holds its finish indefinitely. It will look exactly the same in twenty years as it does now.
Hand-made in Bangkok by the Smutkochorn family. Exclusive to Australia through The Leopard.
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Product information and care
- Material: Japanese 18-8 stainless steel
- Each piece is individually polished and wrapped
- Handmade in Thailand
- Dishwasher safe
- Please note due to the handmade nature sizes may vary slightly and imperfections may occur
About Siam Bronze Factory
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.
