Catalog: Sold Items: Regional Art (115)

Vintage traditional Miao Woman's hairpin used for festival. 7 inches long

This Dong festival hat is wonderfully embroidered with wrapped thread technique. It is further embellished with gold and silver bits edging the fabric design. At the back is the traditional silver ornament of butterfly and hanging bells to keep evil spirit away

The front of this Tibetan wooden snuff bottle is covered with silver repousse ornamentation. The back is surface is also silver.

The bottle is 5 inches x 4 inches x 2.5 inches.

This elaborate silver Miao headband would be worn by a woman for festival. First a piece of fabric would be tied around the womans head to protect her from the sharp edges of the metal. The headband would make a soft pleasing sound as the woman moved her head. The man on horseback and flowers are a reference to the Miao myth of bringing light into the world. The headband is approx 20 inches long.

There are few roads in New Guinea, with the rivers being used as transportation arteries. The various indigenous groups living along the Sepik River of New Guinea make canoes made from hollowed logs and the prows were often carved in the form of crocodiles. Many of the tribes or villages can be recognized by the style of the croc prow of the canoe. This croc head is the remains of an old canoe prow from the mid region of the Sepik river. It is unusually finely carved and nicely detailed...

This saddle has ornate silver and cloisonne detailing. The basic wood saddle tree is covered with leather and the edges are rimmed with strips of silver metal with colorful floral enameling. Addition large flat buttons of silver and cloisonne are sewn to the leg flaps and are also used on the saddle seat to keep the original Tibetan rug saddle pad in place.

Saddle comes with custom made stand.

Sourced from Rong Jiang area of China, the silver sectioned container was made and used by the Miao ethnic minority as a smoking accessory. Worn hanging from a belt, the collection of pipe cleaning tools would act as a toggle to counter weight the container at the other end. Made from low grade silver, the 3 sectioned container has an etched and pierced design and is held together with handmade chain...

According to Chinese culture, the water dragon is One of the nine sons (species) of the Dragon. The water dragon has the head of a dragon, the body of the fish, and a big mouth which allows him to swallow large objects. Because of their wisdom, water dragons are used as the Mascots particularly for students. They are usually found at the eaves of the roof, and are in charge of putting out fires...

This wonderfully detailed Antique pendant is from Tibet. It has silver dragons surrounding a large veined turquoise stone with a smaller coral stone. Additional small bits of turquoise form the background for the dragons tail. The entire scene is backed and bordered with scalloped bronze. The rear of the pendant another oval shaped turquoise stone in a ribbed bezel. The pendent can be easily suspended from a simple black cord using the 2 attached bronze loops...

This pair of Japanese handmade long square cut nails are 5" long and appear to have never been used. The nail heads are solid and shaped into a hemisphere. The silver colored decorative metal escutcheons have scalloped edges and markings to represent a flower. The escutcheons are just under 1" in diameter and have a squared center hole which exactly fits the nail shank.

This old Chinese toggle would have been used for ornamentation on the costumes of both Han and ethnic minority Chinese. The toggle would be sewn on a jacket or hooked onto a belt. Low grade silver was used extensively in China for jewelry and ornaments during the late 19th century.

Years ago, I was fortunate to secure a large collection of various old toggles

In earlier centuries, large numbers of "holy men" wandered throughout India's cities and countrysides. The Sadhus were respected as Hindu ascetics who had given up family attachments and material possessions often including clothing. Without shoes and wearing only hand hewn sandals they would wander about some silent and some preaching. Miss matched, this is a typical pair of Sadhu's sandals, hand carved and well worn and polished through years of foot contact.

This unusual pair of Chinese dolls were made with wire bodies covered with fabric padding and then silk clothing. Their heads, lower arms and feet are made from some kind of composition material and then painted. Because of their wire construction, their arms, legs, and bodies etc can be carefully repositioned. The feet are wired together to provide a more stable base...it is a theory which frankly does not always work well.

Each doll is approx 9.5 inches tall in standing position...

This antique pair of Hand made leather are the old traditional shoes which were worn in Turkey. They were called Charoog...spelling may vary. The soles are concave and curl to a point in the front. The heels are very narrow. They are an interesting ethnographic item of a time long past. They measure 9 inches long

The front of this Tibetan snuff bottle has deep silver repousse with animals and plants. Top stopper has a long copper spoon. The front has a larger circular opening which is fitted with a matching silver repousse stopper decorated with a piece of turquoise. Both the top and front stoppers are tied to the main bottle with a leather thong to prevent loss. The rear has a design deeply etched into the silver surface.

The bottle is roughly 4 inches high, 3 inches across and 2 inches thick.

Edited by The Cultural Palace of Nationalities and Published by Nationality Press, Beijing 1985 hard to get English version. 200+ pages of excellant color photos Frankly, the best book on the subject...

These 6 barefoot maidens are elaborately costumed in traditional ethnographic clothing lots of bangles with bangles, and each is playing a different instrument. They stand approximately 8-9 inches tall. a few are missing a bangle and a few have very small dents in the metal work...metal is assumed to be very low grade silver tin combination. Decorative dolls such as these were made as a traditional folk art in India for a couple of centuries...

Until the mid 1900's, transporting goods along the silk road was accomplished by camel caravans ...and it was important not to lose the camels in sand storms along the way... Each camel from Tibet was "adorned" with 3 bells...one large bell hang from a strap around the camel's belly, a 2nd bell was strapped around the neck, and the 3rd bell was hung from the camels tail. This old camel's bell was used on the caravans travailing between Tibet, across China and into Mongolia...