Thai Wood Deer

She has stopped mid-step and is looking at something. You will not hear it either.

This carved deer comes from Thailand, late 19th or early 20th century, in Tenasserim pine wood. Deer turn up often in Thai and wider Buddhist art, a gentle reminder of the deer park where the Buddha is said to have first taught, though figures like this could also simply decorate a home or garden. The wood is pale and bare, its grain and checks plainly on view. Slim legs rise from a rough block base. Her ears are small, her gaze level. Just over forty inches high.

Tall enough to be taken seriously, and apparently unbothered by it.