This teakwood roof pediment once decorated a Northern Thai house. Thai houses featured steeply angled roofs to shed heavy rain quickly. The roofs were covered in Teak shingles and often featured large overhangs. This pediment fit underneath one of these overhangs and was protected from both sun and water to a considerable degree. The piece’s attractive angular geometry comes out of longstanding Thai tradition. It’s attractive to the eye but its design flows out of an effort to economize on the use of wood. This “coffered” composition saves larger, thicker pieces of wood for framing and uses small thine boards to fill in the spaces left over. It’s very efficient in its use of an expensive and valuable resource -Teak. Origin: Northern Thailand, 19th Century.