Thomas Murray

Ramayana Trade Cloth (16837)

India, for the Indonesian Market

Cotton; painted mordant and resist
18th Century
38 x 203 in / 96.5 x 515 cm

This rare Ramayana Indian trade cloth presents a classic heroic theme of good vs. evil: Rama, assisted by Arjuna, and Hanuman the monkey god, vanquishes Ravana and his demons. The art is vigorous and color exceptionally strong on this cloth, which would have been traded for spice. The subject of a great battle with heads and limbs flying would appeal to both Indonesian urban courts and remote tribal headhunters.  See John Guy, Woven Cargoes pp 116-117; Masters of the Cloth TAPI Collection p 20; Yoshimoto for a broken example pp 58-59

Note: We are awaiting updated images. Detail and pre conservation images shown here.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Half Palampore with Mythical Animals and Mughal Flowers (16370)

India, for the Indonesian market

Cotton; block printed and painted mordant and resist dye
Late 17th /early 18th Century
40 x 94 in  / 102 X 239 cm

This textile is unique, no other examples with this very special iconography are known. The decorative elements include Mughal style flowers and birds in the interior, inspired by 17th C. European botanical prints, and borders featuring mythical lions, large hamsa geese, and charming red and purple elephants.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Ceremonial Cloth and Sacred Heirloom, Maá (16390)

Coromandel Coast, India, traded to the Toraja region, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Cotton; mordant painting, mordant printing, batik
17th / 18th Century
154 x 52 in / 391 x 132 cm

This extraordinary textile is almost unique, with only one other example known featuring this special iconography. Its pendant is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia and served as the title page for the major publication, Life, Death and Magic, 2000 Years of Southeast Asian Art. The decorative elements include trees, great leaves, water buffalo ears floating above a pool, and a mysterious pyramid of six circles in a rectangle of buffalo footprints.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Double Red Ship Palepai (16374)

Paminggir People, Kalianda District, Lampung, Sumatra

Cotton, metallic wrapped threads, silk; supplementary weft
18th / early 19th Century
31 x 167 in / 79 × 424 cm

Ex Samuel Josefowitz Collection, Switzerland and New York

On loan to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for 30 years

Double Red Ship Palepai are the most iconic of all Indonesian textiles and were extremely important in the Paminggir society. We see great ships, elephants, birds and human figures that have been interpreted as ancestors.

However, this can only be speculated on as the last weavers who understood this rich iconography departed life more than a century ago, leaving no heirs to their knowledge.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Tampan with Stylized Wedding Scene, fragment (16389)

Paminggir people, Lampung

Cotton; supplementary weft
Late 15th to early 17th century
15 x 14 in  / 38 x 35.5 cm

An exceptionally rare and important pasisir 'coastal' wedding scene, the male with a keris and the female wearing a bridal veil. Although a fragment, it is still one of the finest tampan pasisir I have ever encountered.

$18,000

Thomas Murray

Window Panel with Inscription (41082)

Kalimantan, Borneo

Wood
Late 19th /Early 20th Century
17.25 x 41 in / 43.8 x 104 cm

In the roundels in the upper left and right:
توجه حيث شئت/ ففإنك منصور
‘Go wherever you wish, for you shall be victorious’

In the middle:
الله وحده لا شريك له محمد عبده ورسول الله
‘God alone, He has no associate. Muhammad is His servant and messenger’

The seal of Prophethood carved in wood. According to some reports, the first legend was found on the Prophet’s back, between his shoulder blades. In Ottoman prayer books, this seal is referred to as the Prophet’s ‘Seal of Prophecy’ (mühr-i nübüvvet) and is frequently depicted with a variation of the first legend on the front and the second legend on the back. An exceptionally rare example of Islamic calligraphy in wood, from a pasisir (coastal) Muslim community, Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Tumuk / Tomok Central House Post (41102)

Yami / Tao People, Orchid Island / Botel Tobago

Wood, pigment
19th / early 20th Century

ex Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Published: Arts de Taïwan, Helene Kamer, Paris 1973, p 15

71 In / 180 cm

Yami is the name given to the Austronesian speaking inhabitants of Orchid Island by a 19th C. anthropologist and is the best known identifier, however Tao (man) is the indigenous preference. Tumuk, also called Tomok, are extremely rare and important architectural elements within the traditional Tao house that feature a depiction of the heroic progenitor of the clan, Magamaog, who taught the Tao boat building and agriculture. The other figures are understood to be ancestors. Tumuk were inherited by the eldest son as familial treasure.

Price on request

Thomas Murray

Shamanic Knife (41051)

Tao - Yami peoples, Orchid Island, Taiwan

Wood, steel, and rattan
19th century
With strap 22.5 in (57cm), the knife and scabbard is 14 in (35.5cm)

A rare ceremonial knife that was used to “kill demons and evil spirits”.

Part of a significant collection of Formosan Aboriginal sculpture and textiles.

$12,000

Thomas Murray

Chief's Heirloom Ornament, Mase (33683)

Tanimbar, Southeast Maluku, Indonesia

Gold alloy
19th Century or earlier
4.5 in / 11.5 cm

This nobleman's gold pendant is well documented in a photograph dating from a century ago by the Missionary Petrus Drabbe (1887-1970)

We recognize the masquette and see the horn was already broken and rejoined with a local repair at the time of the photo.

$22,000

Thomas Murray

Chiefly Ornament with Ancestor Motifs (33685)

Leti island, Indonesia

Gold alloy, metal, yarn
19th Century or earlier
2.5 x 2.75 in / 6.35 x 7 cm

This necklace speaks to a brilliant cultural fusion. It combines the Taoist Immortal Shou Lau holding the fungus of longevity and riding his crane mount, taken from a Peranakan bride's headdress, plus a pair of exceptionally rare Leti ancestor figures in classical cubist style suspended from stylized clouds.

Leti is located in the far eastern Maluku Islands of Indonesia where Chinese have maintained a presence for centuries trading porcelain for fat sea cucumbers and spices.

$12,000

Thomas Murray

Large Earring Pair, Sumbek Talingo, with Wood Box (41043)

Minangkabau people, West Sumatra, Indonesia

Gold, diamonds, metal
19th Century
each 3 x 3 in / 7.5 x 7.5 cm

An important pair of heirloom gold ear ornaments worn by women of noble class. The diamonds are rough cut, traded into Sumatra from Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

$9500

Thomas Murray

A Private Collection of Thogcha Talismans

Including Buddhist and Geometric Shapes and Forms

Tibetan Plateau

Mixed metals, bronze, iron, copper, leather
1000 BC - 1800 AD

Thogcha are known as 'fall from sky' objects, associated with meteors, comets, thunder and lightning. They are 'found objects' that were at some point in history lost, dropped into the soil of the Tibetan Plateau, only to be discovered hundreds, even thousands of years later by herdsmen, pilgrims, or monks walking upon the land. This private collection features objects that were originally intended as talismans, including a pre-Buddhist Shang dynasty tao tei masquette, Scythian - Ordos style steppes tiger, a Sasanian- type bird in roundel, auspicious eagle Kyung, revered in the ancient Bon religion. There are also first and second diffusion Buddhist votive objects, including a Vajrapani, dorjis, phurbas, and others. Finally, there are many objects perhaps originally mundane, i.e. horse trappings, rings, arrowheads, buttons, buckles, etc. that became enchanted by their unearthing. Collectively they possess properties of magical protection, with a gathering of an odd number thogcha favored for good luck. Thogcha (pronounced toke-cha) offer tangible evidence of the intangible, from the animistic beliefs of the Tibetan nomads to insights about the archeology of the Tibetan Plateau, otherwise never researched due to a religious taboo not to disturb the earth.

Price on request