Product Description

Old Sumatran Medicine Container 3

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).