Specifications

• Height: 17,6 cm
• Material: wood
• Position: 
• Gender: male and female
• Indigenous name: hampatong karuhai
• Price realised: € 1.000,- hp

Provenance

Old Dutch collection, The Hague; De Zwaan, 5-11-2019, lot 3450.

Publications

Klokke, Arnoud (2012), Along the rivers of Central Kalimantan, 115.

ref. Corbey, Raymond (2016), Of Jars and Gongs; Two Keys to Ot Danum Dayak Cosmology

Additional information

When Klokke writes ‘two small effigies of a seated man and a seated woman, with, between them, a small carved bamboo tube to store tobacco for daily use.’ in his description of the present sculpture he photographed in situ, in the village Sandung Tambon along the small river Miri, a tributary of the upper Kahayan, he clearly wrote this not from memory. In fact it is one piece of sculpture, with two anthropomorphic figures at the back (not seen on the photograph) and the cylindrical container is not a bamboo tube for tobacco, but a wooden container. The sculpture is carved out of one piece of wood and has a narrow hollowed tube at the back surmounting an aso beak, a symbolic representation of Jata, the supreme being of the Underworld. Rare. For reference purposes see also an akin figure in the inventory of Museum Volkenkunde (RV.6122.23).

Photo credits

De Zwaan, Amsterdam