20th C. Southeast Asian Wood Bust w/ French Coins

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VARIETY AUCTION - Antiquities / Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Jan 7, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-01-07 10:00:00 2020-01-07 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : VARIETY AUCTION - Antiquities / Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/variety-auction---antiquities-ethnographic-4787
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• Lot Description
  **Originally Listed At $400**
  
  Southeast Asia, French Indochina, Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia, ca. early to mid 20th century CE. A hand-carved wooden bust depicting a man of status, perhaps a chief or a wealthy man, wearing a black-painted vest atop his red body. The man holds his arms at his sides with hands placed next to the integral plinth, and the painted vest is adorned with four 1943 French Indochina 1 centime coins. The raised head boasts almond-shaped eyes, a broad nose with incised nostrils, cupped ears, and thin lips with a drilled slot meant to hold a cigarette or pipe. A faded date on the bottom of the plinth appears to read "1881," perhaps the birth date of this individual, however fading has rendered the numbers difficult to discern. Size: 12.5" W x 21.75" H (31.8 cm x 55.2 cm).
  
  The sculpture exhibits a very unusual coalescence of styles. The proportions of the carved details - including those of the head and torso, small hands, and painted mustache - indicate this bust represents a "big man," or chief from a tribal society, likely one of the hill tribes or ethnic minority groups in Indochina. However, the short-cropped style of the coiffure as well as the buttoned vest suggests heavy influence by French colonists. It is possibly that this bust was part of a tribal funerary shrine, and the European stylistic influences suggest the figure was in some form connected to the colonial authorities.
  
  Provenance: private Johnson collection, Los Angeles, California, USA
  
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  #147516

  Condition

  Coins on vest were perhaps added later. Losses and insect damage to verso as shown. Nicks and abrasions to arms, body, head, plinth, and verso, with fading to some areas of original pigmentation, softening to some finer details of bust and coins, light encrustations, and inactive insect damage. Nice earthen deposits and traces of original pigmentation throughout.
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