Yes, it's one of a spate of Thai collectors' books that have appeared in the last ten years - as you say, stunning pictures. But, I'd add, sometimes questionable information. I don't want to put these down; they're encouraging symptoms of a culture that is excited by the rediscovery of its own wonderfully varied past. But a lot of the time it's a fiercely competitive world in which collectors are - almost literally, at times - fighting to validate their own investments.

Overall, the publications of archaeologists in Thai, English and French during the last twenty years provide much more reliable information. These tend to be produced by teams of researchers from a wide range of cultural backgrounds working together with innovative new technologies. On Lopburi in particular, I'd recommend publications by Sawang Lertrit, T.O. Pryce, Bérénice Bellina, Roberto Ciarla, Fiorella Rispoli and Thanik Lertcharnrit. Their illustrations unfortunately are less exciting, but their work builds up a much more interesting composite understanding of the creative experiments that produced the artefacts we enthuse over.

Will