Product Description

Antique Java Moko Lime Container

Material: Bronze
Style: Lumajang, East Java, Indonesia
Size: Height 21 cm,  Diameter 7.5 cm
Order Number: MHSAM1

Lime Container with an anthropomorphic lid. 

This cylindrical  lime container has an elongated finial in the form of a mask-like human face with a  classical stylized heart-shaped design containing large bulbous eyes, raised mouth and  nose, and looped ears.

The top and bottom of the body of the container are decorated with wide bands of rope-like decorative motifs.

Bronze containers of this type were used to hold lime powder. The basic ingredients of a betel quid are betel leaf, areca nut and lime powder. These containers show that betel chewing went back a long time.

They were made by the local bronze industry. They are not Dongson imports from Vietnam.

They are rare and were found by East Java farmers digging in their fields in the last decades of the 20th century.

The copper alloy has a  blue/green patina.

About 2,000 years old.

300 BC – 100 AD.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer)