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Lot 731
A WOODEN SOUL SHIP
Estimated Value:
1.500 € - 2.500 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Tanimbar, Indonesia, East, Alfuren, early 20th cent.H. 71,5 cm, L. 80 cm
Wood (mangrove). Very rare ancestor or votive boat from eastern Indonesia, probably from the island of Tanimbar, depicting a standing figure in a high-sided ship or boat. The figure is stylised and embedded in the deck by means of a peg. It seems possible that it was intended for further processing. The head has been roughly pre-carved using saw cuts and the natural growth form of the trunk used can still be clearly recognised. The boat has already been moulded and has notched stems decorated in the style of the ships of Tamimbar and other East Indonesian islands.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s
The Tanimbar archipelago consists of 30 islands in the Maluku Tenggara kabupaten (regency), Maluku provinsi ("province"), in eastern Indonesia The islands lie between the Banda and Arafura Seas. The area used to be forested, with dense mangrove forests that offered the locals good protection against attackers. The Moluccas were colonised tens of thousands of years ago. Between 10,000 and 2000 BC, the Austronesian expansion reached the islands. The population consists mainly of Malays and smaller ethnic groups with Melanesian and Papuan roots, who were previously referred to collectively as Alfurs. The trade in spices, which has been known for thousands of years and gives the archipelago its name, was already practised by the indigenous people. The inhabitants of the smaller volcanic islands traded nutmeg and cloves for palmsago from the larger islands, such as Halmahera and Seram. The Moluccas were already the focus of international interest in Greek and Roman times, but above all the spice trade conducted by Arabs and Europeans in the "colonial era". The medieval Arabs and Indians were followed by the Portuguese, Spanish (16th century) and then the Dutch and English (17th century and later) as monopolists.
