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Lot 670
A shield "kliau"
Estimated Value:
2.500 € - 3.500 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Borneo, Kalimantan, Dayak, Kajan or Bahau, 19th cent.H. 135 cm, B, 40 cm, T. ca. 15 cm
Wood (jelutong, Dyera costulata), rattan ribbons, pigments, hair (human). Very beautiful, high-quality Dayak battle shield of great elegance. The shield is carved from a single piece of wood (Dyera costulata, an apocynacae plant) and reinforced with rattan ribbons. The handle on the back is carved from the piece of wood and is not attached. This feature is essential; it distinguishes high-quality old shields (like this one). Also noteworthy is the high quality of the decoration of the back, which is painted with comparable fineness to the front. The jetulong tree used for the shields can grow up to almost 70 m high and over 2.5 m thick. During the felling, which was only sporadically and very deliberately, numerous measures were taken to apologize to the tree and the forest spirits. The motifs, which depict highly stylized faces or grimaces with long tusks, are applied to the shield on both sides with stencils. Black pigment is burned, unripe coconut shells and red pigment is dragon's blood, which has been rubbed in coconut oil. The shield is decorated with numerous tufts of human hair - supposedly those of the headhunting victims, but the hair of living people was also used. The shield demons are intended as guardian spirits for the weapon bearers, but also to instill fear in the enemy. The shields were also displayed at important ceremonies. In most cases, the motifs depict one or more anthropomorphic faces with long fangs, entwined with stylized aso motifs. The shields of the Kenyah and the Kayan are painted on both the front and the inside, but the painting on the inside is often simpler. The depiction of the outside is intended to deter the opponent, while the inside is intended to protect the wearer. The shields were held freely with the hand and stretched out towards the enemy; an attempt was made to "bind" the opponent's weapons with the soft but tough wood by getting stuck. They were used in conjunction with the mandau or malat, the combat sword of the Dayak. The fights (kajau), which were of short duration and associated with headhunting, are characterized by great mobility and almost artistic jumps and duck maneuvers.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s
It can be assumed that the Dayak ethnic groups adopted the motifs of demon shields from Chinese culture. Shields with faces are already common in shields of the Warring States and the Spring and Autumn Annals period (ca. 700 - 400 BCE) as well as those of the subsequent Han Dynasty. The Dayak (daya: lit. "come", as an indication of immigration) probably came to the archipelago from southwest China (Yunnan) in several waves during the turmoil of the late Zhou and late Han periods (Metal Age Austronesian migration). Demon faces as an apotropaic element in "sensitive places" are often found in China, Japan, India and the East Indian archipelago. In Southeast Asia, they can certainly be traced back in part to the ancient Chinese totemic taotieh tiger mask, which was very common in the Zhou dynasty, but can be traced back to the Neolithic.
