Benjarong hand-painted porcelain (small bowl or lidded jar)

Thailand's royal five-color porcelain, still painted stroke-by-stroke by hand — heirloom craft you watch being made

Price: 1500 THB (Trinket pieces from ฿80; quality hand-painted gold-detailed small bowls/jars ฿800-3,000; full tea sets ฿10,000-100,000 depending on gold work)

Where to buy: Thai Benjarong at River City Shopping Complex (3rd floor), Boonyarat Benjarong (Chatuchak district), or Baan Don Kai Dee craft village day-trip (Samut Sakhon)

Price checked 2026-07-03

• Price scales with the amount of real gold paint and painting density — compare brushwork under light
• Extremely fragile: insist on export-grade packing or ship from the store
• Buddha-motif pieces over 12 cm need an export permit; five-color floral and thepphanom patterns travel permit-free
• River City is also Bangkok's antiques hub — genuine antiques of any kind need Fine Arts Department export paperwork