yeah, it's signed "klier & co., rangoon." really?! klier & co.ld be not the makers, but the retailers, and rangoon, of course, is in burma. gosh! yep. but i knew it was burmese, because look at how lively the carving is. it's made of teakwood, and the gong is obviously bronze. but it's so active. of course, the piece is centered by this beautifully carved, crisp, opening lotus blossom, the very symbol of buddhism, the symbol of the buddha, and of course the burmese practiced a type of buddhism, theravada buddhism, which was, of course, rolled into their local interest in the natural spirits of the forest and the landscape. i've always been intrigued by the paintings, or the images. it's lovely. now, these are spirits, or divas, as they were called, and you would find figures like this in palace carvings, around the doorways of buddhist temples or palace complex^ it--it's almost certainly made for the tourist market, in and around 1890, 1900. gosh. it's a beauty. um... value... my own thought, a very healthy £500 worth of carving. oh, right. yeah,