Material: Gold
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 4.5 cm and 4.75 cm, Width 3.5 cm and 3.5 cm
Order Number: MHSATE1

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

Solid, pear-shaped gold earrings known as robot earrings (for obvious reasons) or lelbutir. Even the local people call the appendages ‘arms’ and ‘legs’. The bottom parts are flat, instead of being round as is usual. They were used in a gift exchange between marriage partners. The wife-takers gave the earrings to the bride’s family.

There is a similar pair of earrings in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva shown in Power and Gold, Jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Prestel-Verlag, 1985, page 302.

19th century or early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Earrings 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Gold
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 3.75 cm and 3.5 cm, Width 3.5 cm and 3.5 cm
Order Number: MHSATE2

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

Solid, pear-shaped gold earrings known as robot earrings (for obvious reasons) or lelbutir. Even the local people call the appendages ‘arms’ and ‘legs’. They were used in a gift exchange between marriage partners. The wife-takers gave the earrings to the bride’s family.

There is a similar pair of earrings in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva shown in Power and Gold, Jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Prestel-Verlag, 1985, page 302.

19th century or early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Earrings 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Gold
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 3.25 cm and 2.5 cm, Width 3 cm and 2.75 cm
Order Number: MHSATE3

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

Solid, pear-shaped gold earrings known as robot earrings (for obvious reasons) or lelbutir. Even the local people call the appendages ‘arms’ and ‘legs’. They were used in a gift exchange between marriage partners. The wife-takers gave the earrings to the bride’s family.

There is a similar pair of earrings in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva shown in Power and Gold, Jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Prestel-Verlag, 1985, page 302.

19th century or early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Earrings 3 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Gold
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 3.25 cm and 3.5 cm, Width 2.5 cm and 2.5 cm
Order Number: MHSATE4

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

Solid, pear-shaped gold earrings known as robot earrings (for obvious reasons) or lelbutir. Even the local people call the appendages ‘arms’ and ‘legs’. They were used in a gift exchange between marriage partners. The wife-takers gave the earrings to the bride’s family.

There is a similar pair of earrings in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva shown in Power and Gold, Jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Prestel-Verlag, 1985, page 302.

19th century or early 20th century.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Earrings 4 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Gold
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 22, Width 11 cm
Order Number: MHSATE6

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

The necklace (mase) is a powerful face of an ancestor, intensely gazing ahead, wearing a helmet with ‘s’ shaped decorations and a prominent crescent evoking buffalo horns,  almond eyes and a sharp elongated nose.

Such masks were hung from the head with the pendant resting on the forehead and designed to evoke awe. They were worn by women.

There is a wide variety of styles as shown in the examples in Ethnic Jewellery from Indonesia, Continuity and Evolution, Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, pages 304-309 and

Gold Jewelry of the Indonesian Archipelago, Anne Richter and Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, pages 65-68.

19th – early 20th century.

Map of Tanimbar.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Necklace appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Gold and silver alloy
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 3, Width 3 cm
Order Number: MHSATE5

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide. They depend on boats as their main transport.

Pendant or earring or house treasure object decorated with spirals and 2 crouching figures facing a house structure. The position of the humans is similar to wood carvings from the same area. Such a piece would be a family heirloom symbolising the power of the house and its position in the village.

Omega-shaped, these are the furthest eastern examples of gold being used in Indonesia for the omega form.

There is a similar one in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva shown in Power and Gold, Jewelry from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Prestel-Verlag, 1985, page 227.

18th – 19th century.

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

The post Antique Tanimbar Pendant appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bone
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 18 cm, Width 29 cm
Order Number: MHST1

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide.

They depend on boats as their main transport.

Noble families create glorious stylised ancestor altars to deified and recent ancestors. The truncated, hourglass, inscribed body has wide outstretched arms in the shape of a curved boat.  The ears have hanging earrings. At the edges are curling finials of radiating hooks. These honour the founding ancestors and are adorned with jewelry.

The larger ones, more than a metre and a half in height, support the central beam of the house. This is the centre of the house where children sleep. The ancestors determine men’s hunting and women’s fertility. Family heirlooms also include skulls, bones and wooden effigies.

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

The post Tanimbar Altar 1 (Tavu) appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bone
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 25 cm, Width 25 cm
Order Number: MHST2

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide.

They depend on boats as their main transport.

Noble families create glorious stylised ancestor altars to deified and recent ancestors. The truncated, hourglass, inscribed body has wide outstretched arms in the shape of a curved boat.  The ears have hanging earrings. At the edges are curling finials of radiating hooks. These honour the founding ancestors and are adorned with jewelry.

The larger ones, more than a metre and a half in height, support the central beam of the house. This is the centre of the house where children sleep. The ancestors determine men’s hunting and women’s fertility. Family heirlooms also include skulls, bones and wooden effigies.

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

The post Tanimbar Altar 2 (Tavu) appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Wood, beads
Style: Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia
Size: Height 27 cm, Width 6.5 cm, Depth 8 cm;  Height 25.5 cm, Width 6 cm, Depth 8.5 cm
Order Number: MHST3

The Tanimbar Islands are located in the South Moluccas and comprise over 60 islands which are 135 miles long and 70 miles wide.

In animist Southeast Asia the origin of human life is thanks to the ancestors, as are all skills, knowledge, materials, prosperity and fertility. It is vital to remember and honour them.

Ancestor figures are created as a focus to venerate the founding forbears.

Please ask the price (or make an offer).

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