A Nias male figure

A Nias male figure

Indonesia

with a stylised palm crest and a scroll back knot, the face with a moustache and wearing a ribbed necklace, with the hands raised to the chest, having an erect penis and with bent legs and raised on a block base, with black highlights, 19th century,

62cm high, on a ebonised base inscribed in yellow paint SUMATRA. (2)

Provenance

William Downing Webster (1868 - 1913)

Lieut. Gen. Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827 - 1900)

The Pitt Rivers archives record this figure in Volume 4, p. 1343, as 'bought of Webster' on October 20th, 1896. The entry lists '2 wooden carved Sumatra idols, male and female' and with watercolours drawings of both showing two views. It was then on display at the Farnham Museum, Room 9, case 104.