ceremonial shield
southern Vietnam / Laos
19th / 20th cent.
appr. 20 inches
resinous black laquered wood with tin inlay
Euro 3.800
This rare type of ceremonial shield has been used from high ranking warriors during dance festivals to display their power. It shows a central sun motif, which is made by contrasting tin metal bands fixed onto resinous black laquer. – The corpus which is convex on the „sunny side“, has been completely covered by a natural laquer on which tin metal has been applied, showing a stylised sun motiv. – The border shows different types of decoration. – This pieces comes from an old US collection and shows clear signs of use and age (rubbed off tin bands) and an old crack. Related pieces can be seen in the Museé Barbier – Mueller in Geneve, of in the book „arts primitifs de l´asie du sud-est, Alain Schoffel“.