Material: Cotton
Style: Hmong, South China
Size: Height 82 cm, Width 36 cm
Order Number: MHSHBC1

The Miao people are one of China’s major ethnic groups. They live in southern China mostly in Guizhou province. Miao sub-groups such as the Hmong live in northern Thailand and eastern Burma. The Hmong first started to migrate out of China and into Southeast Asia around 1800.

The Hmong have 2 major branches, the White Hmong and the Green Hmong. The Blue Hmong are also called Green Hmong. The names come from the colours of the Hmong style clothing worn by each group.

Many migrated to Laos. By 1850 they were established in the mountains around Luang Prabang. By the end of the 19th century there were several Hmong villages in Thailand. In 1984 there were 245 villages.

During World War II the Chinese tried to stop them speaking their own language or wearing their distinctive dress, but they failed.

Costumes and ornaments are considered by the Miao not only to satisfy the basic needs of life but also as precious works of art that represent the thoughts and efforts of the Maio people. They have mastered the arts of embroidery and batik.

Miao embroidery employs bold colours – green, red, bright blue, orange,  yellow and white, often on a black or  blue background.

They also used geometric patterns. The designs are  delicate and clear cut. The geometric patterns are similar to those of the Yao people and they may have had a common ancestor.

Hmong mothers devote their finest skills in making baby carrying cloths and caps. A carrying cloth resembles a bibbed apron. It is made of 2 rectangular pieces of cloth, the smaller at the top, joined together at the borders.

Straps attached to the outer corners tie around the mother’s body to secure the baby on to her back freeing her hands for other tasks.

Textiles and clothing are prized by the Hmong as family treasures, as examples of women’s needlework skills and symbols of collective ethnic identity.

There are two Hmong dialects: Blue and White. In Blue Hmong, a baby carrier is spelled hla nyia. In White Hmong, it is spelled daim nyias.

Women receive a baby carrier from their mother and/or mother-in-law when they marry or give birth to their first child for its use, but also to show desire for the couple to have many children. Hmong men and women are not considered to be adults until they have children.

When a baby is born, its paternal grandmother will make a baby carrier or a hat. Both of these objects provide physical as well as
spiritual functions, because the decoration will attract and help keep the baby’s soul in the body as well as draw protective spirits.

Baby carriers are used to carry and care for babies and small children and protect them from physical and spiritual harm. In Laos, mothers carry their infants or small child in a baby carrier to the family fields to work. Keeping the child in the carrier keeps them out of harm’s way which includes the child wandering off, hurting themselves, or being attacked by wild animals.

The spiritual protection comes from the surface embellishment which foils malevolent ‘wild’ spirits and prevents them from taking or enticing the child’s soul to leave the body.  A person becomes ill when his soul leaves the body. The geometric patterns on the central panel keep the child’s soul from leaving the body and the bad spirits from getting close to the child.

During Miao holidays they wear their colourful costumes.

Early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post 43. Hmong Baby Carrier appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, rattan, horn
Style: Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia
Size: Height 20 cm, Width 5 cm (top), 7 cm (bottom)
Order Number: MHSAC1

Balinese women wear elaborate hairstyles at Balinese ceremonies which are enhanced with combs.

This elegant comb is in the shape of a human body.

This large, split comb is sculptural and striking. The form is similar to Balinese representations of Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice, with a wide, fanned-out headdress, known as cili.

19th – early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Balinese Comb 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Silver(?), Wood
Style: Bali, Indonesia
Size: Height 23cm, Width 13 cm
Order Number: MHSAC2

Balinese women wear elaborate hairstyles at Balinese ceremonies which are enhanced with combs.

This large, split comb is sculptural and striking. The form is similar to Balinese representations of Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice, with a wide, fanned-out headdress, known as cili.

19th – early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Balinese Comb 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, iron
Style: Bali, Indonesia
Size: Height 8.5 cm, Width 12 cm, Length 26  cm
Order Number: MHSBRC1

Rice is the world’s most important crop and the staple food of half the world’s population. In most parts of Indonesia rice is the staple food. Rice cultivation is accompanied by many rituals and beliefs and the tools were decorated by the rice farmers or specialists.

The fields must be kept flooded while the plants are growing. Yellow-green shoots sprout up in the silvery water. The rice grows tall and green. When the tops droop, the plants are mature and ready to harvest.

Rice cutters were used to cut the ears of rice at harvesting time. They cut the ears of grain (padi) one by one very carefully, and tried not to lose any grains. They were then tied into bundles and stored in the granary.

They used the hand knife so that it did not hurt or frighten the rice or be offensive to the rice goddess. Now rice is harvested with a sickle, but some farmers still have a special field in the corner for traditional rice and harvest it with the hand knife.

Early – mid 20th century.

Girl going home after picking rice with an ani-ani in her hair (1935).

Map of Bali.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Balinese Rice Cutter appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Ivory
Style: China
Size: Height 3.5 cm, Width 16 cm
Order Number: MHSACC1

In traditional Chinese Medicine, combing hair is an efficient way to keep healthy; it is believed this can massage nerves and stimulate blood circulation. Combs of different materials were used for different hair quality and body conditions.

​Both men and women carried a comb.

Rectangular comb with a handle, decorated with openwork lattice design with with foliate decoration.

Early – mid 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Sequins
Style: China
Size: Height 8 cm, Diameter 23 cm
Order Number: MHSACHS1

Early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Hat 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Cotton
Style: South China
Size: Height 11 cm (front),  22 cm (back), Diameter 16 cm
Order Number: MHSACMH1

There are 55 officially recognised ethnic groups in China.

Early – mid 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Minority Hat 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Cotton
Style: South China
Size: Height 22 cm (to fringe), 48 cm (to bottom of flaps), Width 21 cm
Order Number: MHSACMH2

There are 55 officially recognised ethnic groups in China.

Early – mid 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Minority Hat 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Brass
Style: China
Size: Height 9 cm, Width 3 cm
Order Number: MHSACC1

This Chinese moustache and beard comb which would have been used by a noble man to groom his moustache and beard. The small, oval, two-sided combs were normally suspended from the neck, or from the waist belt. There is a handle with geometric designs and small hook. Two small bands stabilise the top and bottom.

In ancient China, people were not supposed to cut their hair or shave their beards. Moustaches were very popular in the Qing dynasty (1636–1912).

Confucius (551–479 BC) taught that the human body was a gift from one’s parents and no changes should be made to it. Tattoos were taboo. Cutting one’s hair or fingernails or shaving one’s beard were not allowed. Most men, if they could, let their hair and beard grow long.

19th – early 20th century.

There are some examples in Four Centuries of Silver, Personal Adornment in the Qing Dynasty and After, Margaret Duda, Times Editions, 2002, pages 145-147.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Mustache and Beard Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Silver
Style: Miao, South China
Size: Height 6 cm, Width 10 cm
Order Number: MHSACC2

The Miao people live in southern China mostly in Guizhou province. Miao sub-groups such as the Hmong live in northern Thailand and eastern Burma. The Hmong have 2 major branches, the White Hmong and the Green Hmong.

Many migrated to Laos. By 1850 they were established in the mountains around Luang Prabang. By the end of the 19th century there were several Hmong villages in Thailand. In 1984 there were 245 villages.

During World War II the Chinese tried to stop them speaking their own language or wearing their distinctive dress, but they failed.

The Maio keep much of their wealth in silver jewelry. The minorities of South China love to ornament their hair with silver combs.

The wearing of silver jewellery among women is very important. It is a sign of femininity and wealth. Families begin saving to buy silver jewellery when a daughter is born, so that she can get married with a substantial amount of silver jewellery which belongs to her.

Large amounts of silver jewellery are worn at weddings, funerals and springtime celebrations. At New Year all the family silver is worn.

Early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Chinese Silver Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Brass, diamond
Style: Flores, Indonesia
Size: Height 5.5 cm, Width 11 cm
Order Number: MHSAFC1

In the 19th century most Indonesian women wore their hair tied up in a tight bun. Rich women wore decorative combs, such as this one to hold their hair in place.

The design can be traced back to Southern China and they came to be popular across much of island Southeast Asia, as far as Timor. They were worn until well into the 20th century.

There are similar examples in Gold Jewellery of the Indonesian Archipelago, Anne Richter and Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, pages 319-321.

19th – early 20th century.

Map of Flores .

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Flores Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bone, cotton
Style: India
Size: Height 10 cm, Width 11.5 cm
Order Number: MHSAILC1

Some of the world’s most beautiful combs were made specifically for delousing. They go back to the Ancient Egyptians. Head lice have been found in the hair of Egyptian mummies. They are older than  humans. There is a  wooden comb from Egypt’s Coptic Period (500 AD to 1000 AD in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

There is a 12th century example from Venice in the Walters Art Museum,  a 12th century example from England in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a 15th century example from France in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Lice combs have very fine teeth to remove lice and louse eggs. Most ancient combs are double-sided, with very fine teeth on one side for the lice and sparser teeth on the other side for cosmetic purposes. Combs are usually made of wood, bone, or ivory.

19th – early 20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Indian Lice Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Beads, bark
Style: Mualang, Iban, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height  48 cm, Width  46 cm
Order Number: MHSAKJ1

Dayak is the name applied to a number of very different peoples  living on the island of Kalimantan, but also elsewhere. They share some common characteristics. They live in longhouses, situated mostly on navigable rivers. They were rice farmers, living simple lives, but staging large religious ceremonies, which involved large feasts.

Kalimantan sits on the equator, so little clothing is necessary. Everyday Dayak clothing consisted of a loincloth for men and a short skirt or two apron-skirts for women. Inside they wore a headband and outside a hat. Both men and women wore a jacket for semi-formal events. Children were mostly naked, but girls may have worn a modesty plaque suspended from a string.

In contrast to these plain clothes ceremonial costumes, lavishly ornamented with animal claws, feathers and teeth, and feathers, silver and beads were worn.

Surprisingly most Borneo beads were not made in Borneo. They come from India, China and elsewhere, and are found in every part of the island. They were prized and most tribes used them and still wear them. They were used in trading as money.

Beads are used to decorate everything: jackets, skirts, hats, headbands, armbands, necklaces, ear-hangings, belts, baby carriers, baskets, betel boxes, sword hilts, walking stick sheaths, mats and the ends of loin cloths.

Traditionally men designed the patterns and women threaded the beads. Bead costumes require great skill and ample supplies. Wear and tear on these costumes is immense. If part of the bead fabric is damaged or worn out it cannot be replaced or patched up like a textile. Usually they are unravelled and the beads are used for something else, such as a necklace. So the costumes are usually only worn during festivals.

Bead jackets  were traditionally woven by wives for their husbands to protect the husbands during headhunting raids or battles.  Headhunting is no longer practised, but the wives still make them. For example, for protection during World War II against the Japanese, and later as a display of status and manhood.

This man’s jacket with the two dragons’ motif is from the Mualang indigenous people, a sub-tribe of the Iban, which comprises about 50,000 people. They speak the Mualang language and live mostly in the Sekadau Regency and Sintang Regenecy of West Kalimantan. There are some tears and holes.

Early – mid 20th century.

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Bead Jacket 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Beads
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height 55 cm, Width 40 cm
Order Number: MHSAKJ2

Dayak is the name applied to a number of very different peoples  living on the island of Kalimantan, but also elsewhere. They share some common characteristics. They live in longhouses, situated mostly on navigable rivers. They were rice farmers, living simple lives, but staging large religious ceremonies, which involved large feasts.

Kalimantan sits on the equator, so little clothing is necessary. Everyday Dayak clothing consisted of a loincloth for men and a short skirt or two apron-skirts for women. Inside they wore a headband and outside a hat. Both men and women wore a jacket for semi-formal events. Children were mostly naked, but girls may have worn a modesty plaque suspended from a string.

In contrast to these plain clothes ceremonial costumes, lavishly ornamented with animal claws, feathers and teeth, and feathers, silver and beads were worn.

Surprisingly most Borneo beads were not made in Borneo. They come from India, China and elsewhere, and are found in every part of the island. They were prized and most tribes used them and still wear them. They were used in trading as money.

Beads are used to decorate everything: jackets, skirts, hats, headbands, armbands, necklaces, ear-hangings, belts, baby carriers, baskets, betel boxes, sword hilts, walking stick sheaths, mats and the ends of loin cloths.

Traditionally men designed the patterns and women threaded the beads. Bead costumes require great skill and ample supplies. Wear and tear on these costumes is immense. If part of the bead fabric is damaged or worn out it cannot be replaced or patched up like a textile. Usually they are unravelled and the beads are used for something else, such as a necklace. So the costumes are usually only worn during festivals.

Bead jackets  were traditionally woven by wives for their husbands to protect the husbands during headhunting raids or battles.  Headhunting is no longer practised, but the wives still make them. For example, for protection during World War II against the Japanese, and later as a display of status and manhood.

Early – mid 20th century.

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Bead Jacket 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Cotton, beads, coins, sequins
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height 21 cm, Width 52  cm (shoulder to shoulder)
Order Number: MHSAKJ1

Dayak is the name applied to a number of very different peoples  living on the island of Kalimantan, but also elsewhere. They share some common characteristics. They live in longhouses, situated mostly on navigable rivers. They were rice farmers, living simple lives, but staging large religious ceremonies, which involved large feasts.

Kalimantan sits on the equator, so little clothing is necessary. Everyday Dayak clothing consisted of a loincloth for men and a short skirt or two apron-skirts for women. Inside they wore a headband and outside a hat. Both men and women wore a jacket for semi-formal events. Children were mostly naked, but girls may have worn a modesty plaque suspended from a string.

In contrast to these plain clothes ceremonial costumes, lavishly ornamented with animal claws, feathers and teeth, and feathers, silver and beads were worn.

The back of the jacket is decorated with many Nederlandsch Indie cent coins dated 1945.

This is the jacket that goes with Antique Kalimantan Skirt 1

Early 20th century.

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Jacket 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Cotton, sequins
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height 50 cm, Width 47 cm
Order Number: MHSAKJ1

Dayak is the name applied to a number of very different peoples  living on the island of Kalimantan, but also elsewhere. They share some common characteristics. They live in longhouses, situated mostly on navigable rivers. They were rice farmers, living simple lives, but staging large religious ceremonies, which involved large feasts.

Kalimantan sits on the equator, so little clothing is necessary. Everyday Dayak clothing consisted of a loincloth for men and a short skirt or two apron-skirts for women. Inside they wore a headband and outside a hat. Both men and women wore a jacket for semi-formal events. Children were mostly naked, but girls may have worn a modesty plaque suspended from a string.

In contrast to these plain clothes ceremonial costumes, lavishly ornamented with animal claws, feathers and teeth, and feathers, silver and beads were worn.

Early 20th century.

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Jacket 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, bamboo
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Length 109 cm, Width  32 cm, Height  49 cm
Order Number: AKLM1

Dayak is the name applied to a number of very different peoples  living on the island of Kalimantan, but also elsewhere. They share some common characteristics. They live in longhouses, situated mostly on navigable rivers. They were rice farmers, living simple lives, but staging large religious ceremonies, which involved large feasts.

A Dayak longhouse  is an imposing structure, sometimes over 200 metres long, on stilts.

The longhouse houses dozens of Dayak family apartments and public spaces for social life, including cooking, blacksmithing and ceremonies.

A person’s primary allegiance is to his longhouse. There is a long, straight corridor. A row of doors on one side of the corridor lead to individual family apartments. Ladders on the other side lead down to the ground. There’s an outdoor porch and a place for drying rice, mending nets, drying laundry and other occupations.

Early – mid 20th century.

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Longhouse Model appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, iron blade
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height 12 cm, Length 13.5  cm, Handle: Width 30 cm (top), 17 cm (bottom)
Order Number: MHSRC1

Rice is the world’s most important crop and the staple food of half the world’s population. In most parts of Indonesia rice is the staple food. Rice cultivation is accompanied by many rituals and beliefs and the tools were decorated by the rice farmers or specialists.

The fields must be kept flooded while the plants are growing. Yellow-green shoots sprout up in the silvery water. The rice grows tall and green. When the tops droop, the plants are mature and ready to harvest.

Rice cutters were used to cut the ears of rice at harvesting time. They cut the ears of grain (padi) one by one very carefully, and tried not to lose any grains. They were then tied into bundles and stored in the granary.

They used the hand knife so that it did not hurt or frighten the rice or be offensive to the rice goddess. Now rice is harvested with a sickle, but some farmers still have a special field in the corner for traditional rice and harvest it with the hand knife.

The design is a naga or water dragon. Many Borneo groups in Kalimantan represent the upper world god as a hornbill and the underworld goddess as a naga. Their dynamic opposition expresses their unity and source of life.

The hornbill is a large white and black bird with a striking red beak. For the Barito group, Borneo’s largest group, covering the southern half of the island,  it is the upperworld  male supreme deity. For the Iban of Sarawak, Kenyah and related groups of Sarawak and East Kalimantan it is the messenger of the remote high god.

The female water-dragon provides protection to mankind in everyday life. She guards the dead and eases the passage to the next life. She is portrayed in almost all artifacts from kitchen utensils to funerary monuments.

Early – mid 20th century.

Girl going home after picking rice with an ani-ani in her hair (1935).

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Rice Cutter Ani-Ani 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, iron blade
Style: Kalimantan, Indonesia
Size: Height 12 cm, Length 23  cm, Handle: Width 11 cm
Order Number: MHSRC2

Rice is the world’s most important crop and the staple food of half the world’s population. In most parts of Indonesia rice is the staple food. Rice cultivation is accompanied by many rituals and beliefs and the tools were decorated by the rice farmers or specialists.

The fields must be kept flooded while the plants are growing. Yellow-green shoots sprout up in the silvery water. The rice grows tall and green. When the tops droop, the plants are mature and ready to harvest.

Rice cutters were used to cut the ears of rice at harvesting time. They cut the ears of grain (padi) one by one very carefully, and tried not to lose any grains. They were then tied into bundles and stored in the granary.

They used the hand knife so that it did not hurt or frighten the rice or be offensive to the rice goddess. Now rice is harvested with a sickle, but some farmers still have a special field in the corner for traditional rice and harvest it with the hand knife.

The carvings are the hornbill and naga or water dragon. Many Borneo groups in Kalimantan represent the upper world god as a hornbill and the underworld goddess as a naga. Their dynamic opposition expresses their unity and source of life.

The hornbill is a large white and black bird with a striking red beak. For the Barito group, Borneo’s largest group, covering the southern half of the island,  it is the upperworld  male supreme deity. For the Iban of Sarawak, Kenyah and related groups of Sarawak and East Kalimantan it is the messenger of the remote high god.

The female water-dragon provides protection to mankind in everyday life. She guards the dead and eases the passage to the next life. She is portrayed in almost all artifacts from kitchen utensils to funerary monuments.

Early – mid 20th century.

Girl going home after picking rice with an ani-ani in her hair (1935).

Map of Kalimantan.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Kalimantan Rice Cutter Ani-Ani 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, lacquer
Style: Laos
Size: Height 6 cm, Width 19 cm
Order Number: MHSALC1

20th century.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).

The post Antique Laos Comb appeared first on Murni's in Bali.