White Copper Two Deer Gau Box Pendant

The deer park lies outside Varanasi, and it was there that the Buddha taught for the first time after his awakening, on the four noble truths. Two deer flanking a wheel came to stand for the place, and on Tibetan monastery roofs the gilt wheel with a deer couched on either side follows that reference directly. The deer are in the posture of listening. Front legs tucked under, head slightly raised. Not standing, and not lying flat either.

The combination is already there in early Indian Buddhist carving, so it is not a Tibetan invention. What Tibet did was raise its position very high, onto the roof, where wind and sun work all year and the gilt still has to shine. Which is why the deer and wheel is not simply a picture there. It announces that this is a place where the teaching is spoken. The same statement the stone reliefs made at the deer park, repeated in gold and set above the weather.

On the lid the deer are small, the antlers reduced to two branches, the bodies following the curve of the rim, while the eight-spoked wheel takes up the most room. The eight spokes must be the same length and the centre must be true, and both faults show at a glance. Uneven spokes and the whole group leans. The deer's neck is the difficulty: long and thin, it shrinks in the casting. A good one has a continuous neck line, a poor one has a dent halfway along it.

This kind of lid is afraid of fullness. Deer, wheel and border crowded together with no ground pattern underneath, and the design flattens onto a single plane. Here a plain band is left between the deer and the wheel, sunk a little below them, so that after antiquing it goes dark and the animals and the wheel stand clear. Blank space is where the money goes. Skip that step and the rest of the work is wasted. The baseline under the hooves follows the same logic. With a line, the deer stand on ground. Without one, they float.

On a white copper box the rim is what gets knocked. The lid rim is thin, and a drop will curl it; once curled it will not close, and whatever you put inside stops mattering. Do not carry it in a pocket with keys, and do not leave it on the edge of a table. Oxidation needs no attention, because the dark in the hollows is part of the pattern; wipe the raised surfaces only. Wear the cord to the middle of the chest with the lid facing out. Walking, it lies against the placket and does not flip over, which is the old way with a gau box and quite different from a pendant hanging down.