Material: Horn, brass
Style: Bali, Indonesia
Size: Height 23 cm
Order Number: MHSABBP1

Betel chewing was widespread in Bali and offered to guests as a sign of welcome. It was – and is still – offered to the gods and ancestors in ceremonies.

The basic ingredients are betel leaf, areca nut and lime powder. Gambir and tobacco may be added  to make it more fragrant.

The containers and implements included boxes of various shapes and sizes to store the betel nuts,  betel leaf holders for the already prepared betel quid, lime pots, hinged cutters , similar to scissors, to cut the hard areca nut, knives to cut the softer nuts, pounders to crush the nut, salve boxes to hold beeswax for the lips, spittoons, tobacco pouches and trays on which they all were displayed.

The betel pounder was like a mortar and pestle. It came in various sizes and its purpose was to crush the areca nut into a soft substance for the elderly or those who had no teeth and could not chew the hard nut. The pounder was a long metal instrument with a handle and sharpened tip, which pressed down on the nut inside a tall hollow cylinder.

About 50-60 years.

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

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Material: Ivory or horn
Style: China
Size: Height 6 cm, Width 1.75 cm
Order Number: MHSACSB1

Snuff is powdered tobacco leaves mixed with aromatic spices.

Christopher Columbus saw the American Indians sniffing tobacco during his second voyage in 1494 and brought it back to Europe. It became fashionable in Spain and France, but was not popular in England until Charles II returned from exile in France – he was a fan.

It was popular in high society Europe and was taken by Queen Anne, Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III of England, George IV, Charles Darwin, Duke of Wellington. Lord Nelson, Napoleon, Alexander Pope, the actress Sarah Siddons and Mozart. Abraham Lincoln was also a connoisseur.

The Portuguese introduced it to China in the mid-16th century and gave it as a present to Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722 AD) in the 17th century.

It was originally used  by members of the Chinese Imperial court for medicinal purposes, believed to  ease headaches and digestive problems, and it then spread to all levels of Chinese society,

It was mass produced in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Domestic snuff came from the provinces of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and imported snuff came from Spain, France, and Scotland. The most highly prized was from Brazil.

The original small boxes were incompatible with the humidity of Asia, so the Chinese designed small bottles with narrow necks and added stoppers to keep the powder dry and maintain the aroma.  Small bottles could be carried easily and fit comfortably in the hand. They were made from many materials, such as porcelain, lacquer, jade, ivory, metal, glass, horn (rhinoceros, buffalo), mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell, bamboo, and gemstones.

In the early 18th century, influenced by the Jesuit missionaries who were skilled in glass making and enamelling, there was a increase in making glass snuff bottles. After the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the use of snuff declined dramatically in China.

19th – early 20th century.

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

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Material: Ivory or horn
Style: China
Size: Height 3.5 cm, Width 3.25 cm
Order Number: MHSACSB2

Snuff is powdered tobacco leaves mixed with aromatic spices.

Christopher Columbus saw the American Indians sniffing tobacco during his second voyage in 1494 and brought it back to Europe. It became fashionable in Spain and France, but was not popular in England until Charles II returned from exile in France – he was a fan.

It was popular in high society Europe and was taken by Queen Anne, Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III of England, George IV, Charles Darwin, Duke of Wellington. Lord Nelson, Napoleon, Alexander Pope, the actress Sarah Siddons and Mozart. Abraham Lincoln was also a connoisseur.

The Portuguese introduced it to China in the mid-16th century and gave it as a present to Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722 AD) in the 17th century.

It was originally used  by members of the Chinese Imperial court for medicinal purposes, believed to  ease headaches and digestive problems, and it then spread to all levels of Chinese society,

It was mass produced in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Domestic snuff came from the provinces of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and imported snuff came from Spain, France, and Scotland. The most highly prized was from Brazil.

The original small boxes were incompatible with the humidity of Asia, so the Chinese designed small bottles with narrow necks and added stoppers to keep the powder dry and maintain the aroma.  Small bottles could be carried easily and fit comfortably in the hand. They were made from many materials, such as porcelain, lacquer, jade, ivory, metal, glass, horn (rhinoceros, buffalo), mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell, bamboo, and gemstones.

In the early 18th century, influenced by the Jesuit missionaries who were skilled in glass making and enamelling, there was a increase in making glass snuff bottles. After the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the use of snuff declined dramatically in China.

19th – early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Chinese Snuff and Perfume Bottle 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Horn
Style: East Sumba, Indonesia
Size: Height 7 cm, Diameter 16 cm
Order Number: MHSASPH1

Sumba occupies about 11,000 square kilometres and consists of large limestone plateaux covered with rough grasses and broken by valleys and hills. Thousands of horses live in the vast grasslands of East Sumba. Horses and cattle comprise wealth for the aristocrats in this dry, stony country, which is difficult for agriculture.

The peci is a cap worn by Moslem men. It is a truncated cone, usually made of black or embroidered felt, cotton or velvet. It is worn on formal, religious and state occasions, as well as weddings and funerals.

The name peci is probably derived from the Dutch word petje meaning ‘small hat’. The black cap was modelled on Kemal Ataturk’s fez, but without its Islamic associations. Sukarno, the first President of Indonesia, made it popular. He promoted it as a symbol of nationalist identity for men, whatever their religion.

This one, made of horn, belonged to the head man of a village in East Sumba.

Mid 20th century.

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

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Material: Silver, buffalo horn
Style: West Timor, Indonesia
Size: Height 7 cm, Width 14.5 cm
Order Number: MHSATC2

Timor is best known for its silver and other jewelry. The Timorese have been using metal for a least 2,000 years but silver arrived late and rapidly replaced gold. Funnily enough silver is not native to Timor. The Europeans brought a large number of silver coins, starting with Spanish pieces of eight in the 16th century. Silver Dutch and Portuguese coins were melted down and made into jewelry.

Ornamental comb. The top is embellished with dome shaped motifs.

There is a similar one in Ethnic Jewellery from Indonesia, Continuity and Evolution, Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, page 274.

19th – early 20th century.

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

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Material: Silver, buffalo horn
Style: West Timor, Indonesia
Size: Height 7.5 cm, Width 14.5 cm
Order Number: MHSATC3

Timor is best known for its silver and other jewelry. The Timorese have been using metal for a least 2,000 years but silver arrived late and rapidly replaced gold. Funnily enough silver is not native to Timor. The Europeans brought a large number of silver coins, starting with Spanish pieces of eight in the 16th century. Silver Dutch and Portuguese coins were melted down and made into jewelry.

Ornamental comb. The top is embellished with dome shaped motifs.

There is a similar one in Ethnic Jewellery from Indonesia, Continuity and Evolution, Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, page 274.

19th – early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Timor Comb 3 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood
Style: Timor, Indonesia
Size: Length 27.5 cm, Width 8 cm
Order Number: MHSTR1

Ceremonial rice spoons (nura dikun), carved in Tetum style, are used to ladle cooked rice from the rice basket on the table to the plate at formal festivities, funerals and weddings and to honour guests. Note the outstanding delicacy of the elongated, lavishly carved handles from 6 to 16 inches long.

Drawing by W.O.J Neuwenkamp: An Atoni man clutching two ceremonial spoons, Central Timor, 1916

They were carved by the Atoni and Tetun people, mainly made from Asiatic buffalo horn (Bubalus arnee), boiled in very hot water and sometimes treated with hot oil to make it softer and easier to carve, ranging in colour from amber to reddish brown to black. They were also made from coconut shell or wood. The men carved, engraved and chiselled designs and then polished them with dry banana leaves.

The carvings are of humans, crocodiles, lizards, trees, plants, flowers, birds and geometric shapes, with negative space to add to their impact.  Handles are sometimes perforated.

The handles are often human figures, representing the founding ancestors. Similar bas-reliefs are seen on the wooden doors of royal or chieftains’ houses, ceremonial textiles and statues. Worship of ancestors lasted until the middle of the 20th century, even though West Timor converted to Protestantism and East Timor to Catholicism during colonial times. Some mix of Christian, ancestor worship and rituals still exist.

Sometimes there are crocodiles. The saltwater crocodile is indigenous to Timor and is feared. A legend says that a young Prince fled his war-torn country by sea and was carried lost and exhausted on the back of a crocodile and deposited on a long stretch of land surrounded by mountains, which became Timor.

The gecko, the largest of domestic lizards, about 20 cm to 30 cm long, living in roofs and trees, is a common carving.

There are the shapes of trees, plants and flowers.

Birds, carved from hardwood, are frequently found as a finial on thatched traditional houses, to guide the deceased’s soul to the family home. Birds appear as motifs on textiles, baskets, pottery and jewelry.

These spoons were used for the farewell feast (kenduri) for the deceased, held three nights after the burial. The spoons served as a reminder to the mourners that the deceased’s soul had assumed the form of a bird and separated itself from the living. The Atoni call the spoons kol kotin, meaning backbone of birds.

They reveal the status of the owner, king, chief, nobleman, free man or slave.

Map of Timor.

There are similar ones in The Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, Yale University Art Gallery, USA and the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Arts and Crafts of Indonesia, Anne Richter, Thames and Hudson 1993, page 72 and Spoons from Timor, The Manfred Giehmann Collection Manfred Giehmann and Pierre Dugard, 2023 .

Early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Timor Spoon 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Buffalo Horn
Style: Central West Timor, Indonesia
Size: Length 21.5 cm, Width 7.5 cm
Order Number: MHSTR30

Ceremonial rice spoons (nura dikun), carved in Tetum style, are used to ladle cooked rice from the rice basket on the table to the plate at formal festivities, funerals and weddings and to honour guests. Note the outstanding delicacy of the elongated, lavishly carved handles from 6 to 16 inches long.

Drawing by W.O.J Neuwenkamp: An Atoni man clutching two ceremonial spoons, Central Timor, 1916

They were carved by the Atoni and Tetun people, mainly made from Asiatic buffalo horn (Bubalus arnee), boiled in very hot water and sometimes treated with hot oil to make it softer and easier to carve, ranging in colour from amber to reddish brown to black. They were also made from coconut shell or wood. The men carved, engraved and chiselled designs and then polished them with dry banana leaves.

The carvings are of humans, crocodiles, lizards, trees, plants, flowers, birds and geometric shapes, with negative space to add to their impact.  Handles are sometimes perforated.

The handles are often human figures, representing the founding ancestors. Similar bas-reliefs are seen on the wooden doors of royal or chieftains’ houses, ceremonial textiles and statues. Worship of ancestors lasted until the middle of the 20th century, even though West Timor converted to Protestantism and East Timor to Catholicism during colonial times. Some mix of Christian, ancestor worship and rituals still exist.

Sometimes there are crocodiles. The saltwater crocodile is indigenous to Timor and is feared. A legend says that a young Prince fled his war-torn country by sea and was carried lost and exhausted on the back of a crocodile and deposited on a long stretch of land surrounded by mountains, which became Timor.

The gecko, the largest of domestic lizards, about 20 cm to 30 cm long, living in roofs and trees, is a common carving.

There are the shapes of trees, plants and flowers.

Birds, carved from hardwood, are frequently found as a finial on thatched traditional houses, to guide the deceased’s soul to the family home. Birds appear as motifs on textiles, baskets, pottery and jewelry.

These spoons were used for the farewell feast (kenduri) for the deceased, held three nights after the burial. The spoons served as a reminder to the mourners that the deceased’s soul had assumed the form of a bird and separated itself from the living. The Atoni call the spoons kol kotin, meaning backbone of birds.

They reveal the status of the owner, king, chief, nobleman, free man or slave.

Map of Timor.

There are similar ones in The Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, Yale University Art Gallery, USA and the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Arts and Crafts of Indonesia, Anne Richter, Thames and Hudson 1993, page 72 and Spoons from Timor, The Manfred Giehmann Collection Manfred Giehmann and Pierre Dugard, 2023 .

Early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Timor Spoon 3 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Buffalo Horn
Style: Central West Timor, Indonesia
Size: Length 17 cm, Width 4.75 cm
Order Number: MHSTR4

Ceremonial rice spoons (nura dikun), carved in Tetum style, are used to ladle cooked rice from the rice basket on the table to the plate at formal festivities, funerals and weddings and to honour guests. Note the outstanding delicacy of the elongated, lavishly carved handles from 6 to 16 inches long.

Drawing by W.O.J Neuwenkamp: An Atoni man clutching two ceremonial spoons, Central Timor, 1916

They were carved by the Atoni and Tetun people, mainly made from Asiatic buffalo horn (Bubalus arnee), boiled in very hot water and sometimes treated with hot oil to make it softer and easier to carve, ranging in colour from amber to reddish brown to black. They were also made from coconut shell or wood. The men carved, engraved and chiselled designs and then polished them with dry banana leaves.

The carvings are of humans, crocodiles, lizards, trees, plants, flowers, birds and geometric shapes, with negative space to add to their impact.  Handles are sometimes perforated.

The handles are often human figures, representing the founding ancestors. Similar bas-reliefs are seen on the wooden doors of royal or chieftains’ houses, ceremonial textiles and statues. Worship of ancestors lasted until the middle of the 20th century, even though West Timor converted to Protestantism and East Timor to Catholicism during colonial times. Some mix of Christian, ancestor worship and rituals still exist.

Sometimes there are crocodiles. The saltwater crocodile is indigenous to Timor and is feared. A legend says that a young Prince fled his war-torn country by sea and was carried lost and exhausted on the back of a crocodile and deposited on a long stretch of land surrounded by mountains, which became Timor.

The gecko, the largest of domestic lizards, about 20 cm to 30 cm long, living in roofs and trees, is a common carving.

There are the shapes of trees, plants and flowers.

Birds, carved from hardwood, are frequently found as a finial on thatched traditional houses, to guide the deceased’s soul to the family home. Birds appear as motifs on textiles, baskets, pottery and jewelry.

These spoons were used for the farewell feast (kenduri) for the deceased, held three nights after the burial. The spoons served as a reminder to the mourners that the deceased’s soul had assumed the form of a bird and separated itself from the living. The Atoni call the spoons kol kotin, meaning backbone of birds.

They reveal the status of the owner, king, chief, nobleman, free man or slave.

Map of Timor.

There are similar ones in The Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, Yale University Art Gallery, USA and the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Arts and Crafts of Indonesia, Anne Richter, Thames and Hudson 1993, page 72 and Spoons from Timor, The Manfred Giehmann Collection Manfred Giehmann and Pierre Dugard, 2023 .

Early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Timor Spoon 4 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Buffalo horn
Style: Timor
Size: Height 8 cm, Width 6.5 cm (top), 4 cm (bottom)
Order Number: MHSATTB1

Early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Timor Tobacco Box 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Horn
Style: Batak people, Lake Toba, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Size: Height5.25 cm, Diameter 5.5 cm, Depth 3.5 cm
Order Number: MHSOSMC3

Medicine container, etched with geometric motifs, with superbly carved  stopper with a powerful singa (lion) head and upper part of the body and four men on its back in a procession, the datu or priest at the front.

Magician priests keep their magical brews (pupuk) in these medicine containers. The medicine containers were carried by a cord attached to the man’s belt or over his shoulder.

There are examples in The Batak, Peoples of the Island of Sumatra, Achim Sibeth, Thames and Hudson, 1991, page 142.

Early 20th century.

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

The post Old Sumatran Medicine Container 3 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Horn, wood
Style: Batak people, Lake Toba, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Size: Length 43.5 cm, Height 11.5 cm, Diameter 4 cm
Order Number: MHSCON5

Horn medicine container, etched with geometric motifs and a gecko (lizard),  with carved wooden stopper in the form of a singa (lion).

Magician priests keep their magical brews (pupuk) in medicine containers. They often use hollow horns of goats or water buffalos and the open end is stopped with a wooden plug, the top being usually carved in the shape of a squatting human figure. Some of the rarer ones have a powerful singa head and perhaps part of the lion’s upper body, sometimes with people on its back.

The medicine containers were carried by a cord attached to the man’s belt or over his shoulder.

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