1884.43.2.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Tall basket, roughly cylindrical in shape with a square base. There are four cane supporting bars from each corner, keading up to the two horizontal supports runnings around the basket. There is a fibre cord hanging from one side. For the lid see [1884.43.2 .2] [RM [OPS move] 1/11/2016]

Geographical reference

Indonesia

Asia > South-eastern Asia > Indonesia

Malaysia

Asia > South-eastern Asia > Malaysia

Brunei Darussalam

Asia > South-eastern Asia > Brunei Darussalam

Borneo

Cultural groups

Iban

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Date made: Possibly before 1878

Date collected

?Prior to 1878

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884

Materials and processes

Material Cane Plant, Material Plant Fibre, Process Twill Woven, Process Chequer Woven, Process Basketry, Process Split

Dimensions

Height: max 230 mm, Diameter: max 119 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.43.2.1 PR Cat other PR nos: 3592

Research and responses

See JG Wood 1870 Natural History of Man: Australia etc pp 503 and on 'The basket-work of the Dyaks is exceedingly good, colour as well as form being studied in the manufacture. Of the form of basket called tambok an illustration is here given. The basket is made of the nipa-palm leaf, cut into strips not quite the twelfth of an inch wide, and stained alternately yellow and red. These are interwoven so as to produce a considerable variety of patter, somewhat resembling that which is used the sarongs and other woven fabrics. These patterns are nearly all combinations of the square, the zigzag and the diamond; the last form, however, being nothing more than the square turned diagonal. Although made in cylindrical form, the tambok is slightly squared by means of four strips of hard red wood, which are tightly fastened to the basket by rattan lashing. The bottom of the basket is squared in a similar manner, so as to flatten it and enable it so stand upright, and is defended by thicker strips of wood than those which run up the sides. The lid is guarded by two cross-strips bound firmly round their edges. This basket is exceedingly light, elastic, strong, easily carried and fully warrants the estimation in which it is held. Tamboks are made of almost all sizes, and are extensively used by Dyaks, the Malays and the European colonists'. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

Search terms: Basketry, Basket