Mouseover Zoom loading...
Lot 678
Medicine container "naga barsarang"
Estimated Value:
1.200 € - 1.800 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
North Sumatra, Toba-Batak, 19th cent.L. 50 cm
Horn, wood, textile fibre. Large magic horn (medicine container) of a high-ranking Toba-Batak shaman. An old horn with traces of intensive wearing and sacrifice, as evidenced by a thick, crusty patina. In order to tune the spirit of the horn favourably, the horns were fumigated at regular intervals and, depending on use, rubbed with blood, bele juice and other substances. This ‘sealed’ the surface and prevented ill-intentioned influences on the outside world. The front, which forms the lid, shows a mighty, fully carved head of a singa with a human-like face and a proud, dragon- or horse-like upturned neck. It is accentuated by elegantly executed, spiralling notched decorations. The raised ‘tail’ or the end of the horn is finished off - as is usually the case - by a crouching ancestor figure. The horn has a carrying cord.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s
In this container made from the horn of a buffalo, the usual ‘ancestral procession’ on the head of the singa is very much in the background. The singa itself has the often encountered ‘double face’, with an almost human-looking frontal face, which is combined with the singa animal mouth under the chin, under which the front legs of the creature are visible. On the head sits the typical three-rayed ‘crown’, which according to the relevant interpretation goes back to the headdress of Hindu deities. However, the triple horns on the head, which are typical of singa, may even go back to the ancient taotie motif from the central Chinese cultural area. It has sometimes also been interpreted as a world tree. The taotie is a horned totem animal mask that is always depicted frontally and has been one of the main motifs in Chinese art since the Neolithic period. Originally, it may have been a tiger as the totem of a powerful tribe or clan. This is a very impressive magic horn, probably of great age
