How old are antique singing bowls really?

How old are antique singing bowls really?

If you shop online for antique singing bowls or read any information about the history of singing bowls, you may notice wildly different stories about the age and history of antique singing bowls. I would like to explain the landscape so you understand what is going on with singing bowls on the internet.

If you know me, you know I have been the “debunker” of singing bowl misinformation for more than 20 years. There are many false myths and real mysteries about singing bowls. I try to provide the most straight-forward, honest and accurate information about them.

I have been at the center of the singing bowl world since the 1990’s. I have witnessed all of the developments relating to singing bowl information. I have been one of the main sources for information about singing bowl history, often misquoted, but nonetheless one of the only people looking closely at the history of these objects.

There are only a few companies offering real antique singing bowls today. My former company, Himalayan Bowls, and my current endeavor, The Singing Bowl Museum, are two. There are less than a dozen others, maybe only half a dozen offering real antique singing bowls.

Out of these other companies, only 2 have any real experience dating antiques. Of the others, it seems they are guessing about the age. I see many inaccuracies - people either mistake new bowls as antiques or they date antiques far too young. One seller says “there is no way to date antiques,” another says “the oldest of this type of bowl I have found is 300 years.”

One site says singing bowls are 5,000 years old from Mesopotamia. Another says they are 500 years old from China. Both are incorrect and wildly inaccurate. I don’t know how people publish the sort of bad information that is now commonplace.

Unfortunately, they have not done the real research to understand the history of these objects. There are 2 sellers with a long history who date bowls based on the wear of the metal. While this is a good approach, it is limited. You can only date bowls based on metal wear for about 300 years. After that, the wear becomes less dramatic and dating becomes extremely difficult by those criterion.

Of those two companies, one has backed off from dating and now says most bowls are from the 19th and 20th centuries. You may know who I mean. The fact is they got scared by some fake antiques and now are reluctant to make a false claim.

That is understandable but I would like to correct the record, for dealers and consumers alike, and explain the real history of singing bowls with the scientific proof I have gathered over the past 24 years.

The breakthrough in singing bowl history which allowed me to date bowls back 1,000 years, was research I did with multiple metallurgical labs. The most important was an unsanctioned study done by the Archaeological Metallurgists at Oxford University’s Department of Materials.

This research proved that there were two distinct traditions for singing bowls, which I describe more fully in The Singing Bowl Book. The early tradition was based on bronze bowls from ancient Persia and Khorasan which date to the 9th and 10th century. The later singing bowl tradition was based on bronze bowls from Southeast Asia (Thailand and Cambodia) from the 16th century.

We conducted metallurgical study under electron microscope to find out the bowls were related. They were made with the same metal, same firing and hammering techniques. We also found that the bowls used the same construction methods, with the unique folding technique of the early bowls and the lack thereof of the later bowls. Direct correlates have been documented that relate to each type. We have early Persian bowls similar to the early singing bowls. We have late Southeast Asian bowls related to the later singing bowls.

The relation to the bowls is so indisputable, the look nearly identical and even share the same decorative patterns. They are similar metallurgically, in construction methods, and decoratively.

Moreover, with the giant collection I have curated over the last 24 years, I also see patterns in wear and especially oxidation. The earlier bowls have much heavier oxidation, never present in later bowls.

The early bowls were made with a unique folded construction which has been instrumental in dating the early antiques. Lucky for my historical work, the early folded bowls change over time. The metal begins to unfold, forming a fissure around the top inch of the bowl. This fold separation is only present in the early bowls as the construction technique was abandoned in the later bowls.

It is a lucky coincidence for me to discover the fold separation because it provides a clear marker for the date of singing bowls. The older the bowl, the greater the fold separation. I have made additional correlations, noting that the bowls with more fold separation also have heavier oxidation, certain construction features or certain shapes.

By looking at all of the factors from the hammering and shape to the wear of the metal, I am able to pinpoint the date of a singing bowl quite accurately. Due to the large number of bowls I have dated over the years, I also am able to group bowls together, by age and even by maker. It is a very comprehensive history with a lot of detail. This is the content of The Singing Bowl Museum website.

If you read all the content, from the articles to the individual bowl descriptions, you will have a comprehensive history of the singing bowls.

Nowhere else will you find this level of careful examination of the sibowls. I look at so many factors to date the bowls. My research has revealed a continuous timeline, starting with the bowls of ancient Persia. It is really a wonderful story which I have explained in detail in The Singing Bowl Book.

Please comment and let me know what you think.