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very nice examples of this traditional style bracelet used in Minangkabau Sumatra
Thank you, Linda. When I posted them, I felt sure that at least two people would much like them: you, and Alaa. And sure enough, you comment here, and he reacted to the same photo when I placed that on the Facebook "Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment" page. It's the kind of design and work you, Alaa and I very strongly respond to. Truus loves them too, but not quite with the same intensity perhaps. The Curator for Asian art in the South Australian Art Gallery here in Adelaide loved them the moment he saw them, and asked if he could use them for a soon-to-be-opened exhibition, where they will be on display with some other striking pieces - e.g. the gold Moluccan pectoral shaped somewhat like a soup plate that we bought from you!
Actually, having looked just now at the Facebook "Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment" page, I find that these are being well received there, particularly for the short time they have been there. The imaged reached 4500 people, which is very good compared with many, and 132 people clicked "like". A really good thing is that 40 people proceeded to share the image and caption with their friends - that certainly helps to make the pieces known, and shows real enthusiasm on the part of those 40 people. So the response is so far very positive. I feel it should be, notably because now a good pair has become really hard to get. You and I are right, I feel, to think that in general good Indonesian jewellery is still getting far too little attention.
This pair of bracelets was exhibited in the big show which the Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide) presented called "Treasure Ships: Art in the Age of Spices". The exhibition was on show in that Gallery in 2015 and susbsquently, in 2015-16, in the Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth). A book dedicated to the exhibition, with much valuable content (in the form of both pictures and scholarly writing), was published - under the same title - by the Art Gallery of South Australia, and is well worth owning. I contributed the pages (102-6) on the book *The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet*, an important early scholarly work written by my wife Truus's ancestor Georg Eberhard Rumphius, of which Truus owns a rare copy (of the original publication, in Dutch, 1705), and I also supplied information on other objects we lent to the exhibition, including - in the area of jewellery - the Indonesian (specifically: Molukkan) pectoral cat. no. 144 and discussed on p. 300. For the bracelets posted here see cat. no. 153, and discussion on p. 301. The information published includes material of mine but *only* in the case of the discussion of the book was the publication fully my responsibility.
The single below in 22 K also quite old is a similar example and one I have for sale now from the collection of a client that i had sold it to about 12 to 15 years ago.
You are right, Linda - the pieces are quite comparable. Ours too are 22 karat. All three are characteristically made by the Minangkabau, and of very high quality both in being made of the highest quality gold that can in practice be used, and with superb workmanship as well as great aesthetic judgement.