Antique Bronze Chola Money Pot

Dimensions: 13cm diameter, 13cm high.
Code: METAL 0521

This bronze Chola money pot was made in Tamil Nadu during the Chola period and was sourced from one of South India’s leading antique dealers. These money pots were used to store gold coins of the time, often buried in the grounds of people’s houses for safekeeping. Even today these rare pots with gold coins are occasionally being found when people are gardening! This bronze pot is rounded in shape, has three round feet and a hinged lid. The rim of the base, and the lid are decorated with double bands of geometric designs. On the top of the lid is a lotus bud shaped finial, with a louts petal design around it. The pin in the hinge has at some time gone missing and been replaced with copper wire.

The Chola rulers were great patrons of the arts and spurred a renaissance in Dravidian art and architecture. They utilised the wealth earned through their extensive conquests to build beautiful stone temples and exquisite bronze sculptures, as showcased at the Royal Academy of Art exhibition in 2007. Chola period bronzes were created using the lost wax technique also called cire perdue. This pot would have been made in the same way. It was first sculpted from a mixture of beeswax, oil and camphor, fashioning a wax model. The model would have then be coated with clay and fired in an oven so the wax melts and flows out. Melted bronze is then poured into the empty clay-mould. When the metal has cooled, the mould is broken off. Hence each bronze piece is unique as the mould cannot be used to create copies.