Specifications

• Height: 13,3 cm.
• Material: wood
• Position: haunched
• Gender: female
• Indigenous name:
• Price realised:

Provenance

Rodger Dashow, Boston; Bruce Frank, New York 2025.

Publications

Carpenter, Bruce (2015), Indonesian Tribal Art, p. 243

Ref.: Wentholt, Arnold (2007), ‘Een goed bewaard geheim: de collectie Beijens in Nijmegen’ in: Nieuwsbrief VVE, pp 65-66; Snelleman, Joh. F. (1918), ‘De verzameling-Beijens in het museum te Nijmegen’, NION 2, p. 432, ill. 6

Exhibitions

Additional information

In the catalogue mentioned above this rare figure was attributed to the Benua(q), ten years later it is attributed to the Ngaju, Central Kalimantan. This rare maternity-like sculpture, although much smaller in size, bears many similar features found in the piece of sculpture (35 cm) formerly in the Beijens collection in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Jean Louis Henri Beijens (1835-1914) served as a military in the Banjermasin expedition (1859-1862). During this time he acquired the female sculpture and wrote in his ledger that it was rare and very old and that it came from the Ot-Danum, Katingan in the upper Kajahan. ‘Very old’ should be read as 18th century. The necklace is of a type not recorded to my knowledge and the armbands are rendered in the same way. A special feature in the present item are the pendants hanging down the temples from a string in the hair.

The ‘child’ wears priest ornaments, the ‘mother’ is rendered naked except for some jewelry and a loin cloth of which only a band is visible.

Photo credits

Bruce Frank, New York