Four unidentified Wayang Golek puppets. Two are male, one is female.
Four unidentified Wayang Golek puppets. Two are male, one is female.
Four unidentified Wayang Golek puppets. Two are male, one is female.
Mounted in gold filigree setting depicting a Naga or dragon. The records indicate that this is a piece of ""Royal Javanese"" jewelry. It is a very finely crafted work. The exquisitely delicate gold-work contrasts with the bold, organic simplicity of the tiger's claw to make a striking visual impression. Qing dynasty Chinese product, or a Javanese version of a Chinese piece done by a Chinese jeweler living in Java.
Signs of the zodiac. This is a vessel for sacred liquids prepared and used in Hindu Tantric ritual. In the interior bottom is a strange, quasi-anthropomorphic (phallic?) figure. It appears to have a Kadiri inscription of 4 characters above the sign for Sagittarius. Mummy-like anthropomorphs are repeated above the zodiac, interspersed with figures in the so-called East Javanese Wayang style. This is a very old and significant ritual object. The figures on the surface are ancestral to the Wayang Kulit puppets in the Dickinson collection. At one time it would have had a lid. An almost identical piece, with lid, is published among the national treasures of Indonesia's National Museum in Art of Indonesia: Pusaka, H. Soebadio (ed), 1992, page 114).
Four unidentified Wayang Golek puppets. Two are male, one is female.