A VERY RARE WOOD ANTHROPOMORPHIC RITUAL POST, WEST TIMOR

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A VERY RARE WOOD ANTHROPOMORPHIC RITUAL POST, WEST TIMOR This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve The Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger, entry from 2005: “No. 226, SU 1974, Borneo Batak” Gallery price: EUR 990 or approx. EUR 1,700 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing. Indonesia, late 19th to early 20th century. Boldly carved from a single piece of dense hardwood, the anthropomorphic post presenting a prismatic torso supported on two short, widely separated legs that form an arched opening above the long tapering shaft. The slender arms are rendered in low relief along either side of the torso and terminate in hands with incised fingers. The large oval head is marked by deep-set circular eyes, a long angular nose, a straight mouth, and prominent disc-shaped ears, and is surmounted by a low topknot. Important Note: For essential information on the Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger Dimensions: Height 49.7 cm (excl. stand), 51.7 cm (incl. stand) With an associated wood stand. (2) West Timor is home to several distinct but closely connected ethnolinguistic communities, most prominently the Atoni, also known as the Atoin Meto or Dawan, in the central and western highlands, and Tetun-speaking groups farther east around Belu. Their now greatly diminished carving traditions encompassed ancestor images, ritual posts, figurative doors, ceremonial spoons, containers, staffs, and other objects in which sculpture and function were often inseparable. Common to many of these works is an insistently frontal human presence, with an emphatic head and a body reduced to powerful geometric planes. Images of founding ancestors are often described by the Tetum term ai tos, literally meaning hardwood, and were made in the form of both statues and posts. Such carvings were formerly placed at village entrances, beside graves, on stone altar platforms, and at secluded sites in the forest, where the ancestors were approached for protection, renewal, and ritual counsel. The integral tapering shaft of the present work indicates that it was conceived as a post-form image or as part of a larger structure or implement, rather than as a freestanding statuette. Although its precise original setting can no longer be determined, its fusion of anthropomorphic imagery with a functional lower member is characteristic of Timorese carving. Literature comparison: Compare a related Timor wood ancestor figure, dated 19th-20th century, in the Museon, The Hague, object number 48894.

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