| 中文版 English

具体要求

其它要求

-
关闭
AN IMPORTANT AND RARE VOTIVE OR FUNERARY BRONZE 'DRAGON' BOAT, MAJAPAHIT
奥地利 北京时间
2021年10月16日 开拍
拍品描述
Description:AN IMPORTANT AND RARE VOTIVE OR FUNERARY BRONZE 'DRAGON' BOAT, MAJAPAHIT
East Java, 13th-15th century. Finely cast using the lost-wax/lost-textile process. The boat in the form of a fierce dragon, the hull supported on four scrolling feet. The sides of the boat lined with figures standing side by side in dynamic postures, below two bars with five squatting figures each. The mast with two platforms supporting four and two standing figures, respectively.

Provenance: Acquired by the present owner's father around 1970 and thence by descent.
Exhibited: IFICAH Museum of Asian Culture, Hollenstedt, Germany, You Can Leave Your Head On – Asian Souls on Tour, September 2020 to July 2021. IFICAH (International Foundation of Indonesian Culture and Asian Heritage) is a private non-profit organization established in 2014, its main purpose being the study of Indonesian and Japanese cultural assets, those designated by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity or considered national cultural treasures.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, losses, small dents and nicks, slightly tilted. Traces of weathering and corrosion, possibly minor structural cracks underneath the patina. Superb naturally grown patina of dominant malachite color, with traces of cuprite and soil encrustation.

Weight: 1,655 g
Dimensions: Height 38 cm, Length 31 cm

Lost-wax casting is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method. During the Majapahit period (1293-1527), this technique was developed into a previously unseen spectrum of elaborate forms and motifs. Materials other than wax can be used, including textile.

Models of ships and boats have been crafted throughout history across the globe. While their exact use has often been obscured through the ravages of time, some of these objects have been described as votive offerings, like the Nuragic votive boat in the National Museum of Archeology in Cagliari and the Broighter ship in the National Museum of Ireland. Others, like the Beni Hasan funerary boat in the Ure Museum, are thought to have served a mortuary purpose. The present boat, of superb quality and combining mythical and ancestral elements, with its array of figures and distinct dragon form, clearly was of equal importance to its original owners as these ancient treasures.

Expert's note: A near-identical boat is illustrated in Katherine Szabó, Philip Piper, and Graeme Barker, Sailing between worlds: The symbolism of death in northwest Borneo, ANU Press, 2008, where it is described as a “ship of the dead”. In an email to the owner of the present lot, one of the publication's authors, Philip Piper, a professor and researcher at the Australian National University School of Archaeology and Anthropology, writes: “I would say that your ship is identical to the one that I recorded for sale in Flores over a decade ago. They may have even been manufactured by the same artisan […].” Furthermore, the present boat was recently exhibited at the IFICAH Museum of Asian Culture in Hollenstedt, Germany, where it was described as “a votive offering of East Javanese provenance and probably intended for export to a province of the Majapahit Empire for 'barbarian' tastes.”

Literature comparison: A near-identical boat is illustrated in Katherine Szabó, Philip Piper, and Graeme Barker, Sailing between worlds: The symbolism of death in northwest Borneo, ANU Press, 2008. Compare also an Eastern Javanese Naga spout from a holy water vessel, of similar appearance to the dragon head of the present lot, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1987.142.201. Compare a boat-shaped oil lamp from the Majapahit Empire, dated 1300-1500, in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, object number B76B2.

5% VAT will be added to the hammer price additional to the buyer's premium – only for buyers within the EU.


本场其它拍品

  • 竞价阶梯
  • 快递物流
  • 拍卖规则
  • 支付方式
竞价区间 加价幅度
0
10
200
20
400
50
1,000
100
2,000
200
4,000
500
10,000
1,000
20,000
2,000
40,000
5,000
100,000
10,000
+

流拍

价格信息

拍品估价:7,500 - 15,000 欧元 起拍价格:7,500 欧元  买家佣金: 29.40% + VAT 服务费:本专场服务费按成交价(含佣金)的1.5%收取,最低200元

拍卖公司

Galerie Zacke
地址: Sterngasse 13, 1010 Vienna, Austria
电话: 0043-1-5320452
邮编: 1070
向卖家提问