Where in the world do u think this bust was carved?

J

JimmyJimenez

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Sep 30, 2005
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I have a carved wood bust that I could probably safely say was Asian crafted. My guesses would probably be in it being Indonesian/Bali, Thailand, India, Nepal, etc, but I really don't know exactly from where it is.

I purchased it about 15 years ago at an antique store. I would guess it needs quite a few more years before it becomes an antique (requiring to be 100 or more years old), but definitely has some age under it's belt. These crafts have been around for a long time ;)

With some of the newer stuff being carved, one can almost immediately tell that they may come from places like Indonesia/Bali (by the quality and some of their themes). This one is a lady (I think) that has a somewhat elaborate headpiece, necklace, and earings. I don't know where this type of dress is common, but to know may be the way to know where this piece was likely made.

Can someone offer me some input to better pin point it's origin? Thanks in advance :)

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9207/dscn1620bu7.jpg
 
Not Thai, I think. Never seen anything like that in any Thai works. Wrong face.

Chris
 
namaarie said:
Not Thai, I think. Never seen anything like that in any Thai works. Wrong face.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input guys :)

Namaarie, what's your gut feeling say about where that face and dress fit at home at?

Thanks :)
 
Oh, by the way, when I first purchased this bust I had no idea of where it was from. Even so, the heavy nose and lip features made me think that maybe it was an African bust. As time went by, my leanings started going towards Indonesia's Bali Island (just because the quality of the carvings seemed very much like what I was seeing made in that area of the world).

I must say that the African carvings that I have seen since purchasing this bust have not shown the same high quality carving ability as the better Asian specimens.

But, I just don't know :confused:

Keep the ideas coming guys, I appreciate them :)
 
My guess would also be Bali. It doesn't look like anything I ever saw from Java/. BTW, both Java and Bali are part of Indonesia.
 
Polynesia. The face has a broad nose and thick lips. The ear adornment suggests Papua New Guinea (I think). There is a tribe that slit their ear lobes and insert wooden rings to enlarge the hole.
 
Andrew Taylor said:
There is a tribe that slit their ear lobes and insert wooden rings to enlarge the hole.
Click to expand...

I think some of the kids down the end of my street are from that tribe ;) LOL! :)

Thanks for the continued input, guys :)
 
I was checking out that NOVA website and noticed that the most similar Bali bust was exactly that............. similar. It has a lot of common theme to it, but there are a lot of sticking points as well.

The woman based carvings shown all seem to have thinner nose and lip features, and they also have the dot on the forehead (Hindu, correct?).

As I said, the dressing style seems very similar, but still definitely not a dead ringer to the style on my particular specimen.

Here is a carved head that I own, (which I believe to be a Budha), that I was so confident was made in Bali, that I made a display stand and plaque to display it on:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7417/dscn1623br0.jpg

Notice the finer lips, nose, and the dot on the forehead.

The carving on my bust sure seems like it could very well likely be Indonesian/Bali, but I wish I could find a real strong match somewhere to more solidly confirm it.

Things that make you go hmmm ;)
 
I was just thinking, it's actually a good thing that I'm having a hard time finding an identical themed wooden bust. This probably means that it's not a run of the mill specimen, as is the case with my Bali Budha head carving.

It will still be nice to one day find out for sure where it's from and what the bust represents :)
 
JimmyJimenez said:
I was checking out that NOVA website and noticed that the most similar Bali bust was exactly that............. similar. It has a lot of common theme to it, but there are a lot of sticking points as well.

The woman based carvings shown all seem to have thinner nose and lip features, and they also have the dot on the forehead (Hindu, correct?).

As I said, the dressing style seems very similar, but still definitely not a dead ringer to the style on my particular specimen.

Here is a carved head that I own, (which I believe to be a Budha), that I was so confident was made in Bali, that I made a display stand and plaque to display it on:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7417/dscn1623br0.jpg

Notice the finer lips, nose, and the dot on the forehead.

The carving on my bust sure seems like it could very well likely be Indonesian/Bali, but I wish I could find a real strong match somewhere to more solidly confirm it.

Things that make you go hmmm ;)
Click to expand...

Well yes, your bust is a typical Thai figure. You have to go beyond the wood finish. Look at the bust as a person with a complexion and hair. Yours looks like a Thai person and the first one looks like a Polynesian or South Sea Islands woman. In the same way, if you saw a teak bust of Winston Churchill from Britain, it wouldn't look like Chairman Mau from China even if if was also teak. I hope you get the drift? Take a look at the face shapes here;
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat...itag=crv&_sb_lang=pref&q=papua+new+guinea&o=0

I do feel the key is in the ear adornment.
 
Andrew Taylor said:
Well yes, your bust is a typical Thai figure. You have to go beyond the wood finish. Look at the bust as a person with a complexion and hair. Yours looks like a Thai person and the first one looks like a Polynesian or South Sea Islands woman. In the same way, if you saw a teak bust of Winston Churchill from Britain, it wouldn't look like Chairman Mau from China even if if was also teak. I hope you get the drift? Take a look at the face shapes here;
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat...itag=crv&_sb_lang=pref&q=papua+new+guinea&o=0

I do feel the key is in the ear adornment.
Click to expand...

Excuse me for not fully understanding your statement, could you please clarify it for me?

Are you saying that it's a bust that was carved in Thailand, but done in the style of another culture?

Thanks in advance :)
 
No. Perhaps I didn't explain properly. If you don't know where the bust was made, look at the style of the face as though it was a real person. It is unlikely that a carving would be done in one country to look like people from another country. If you can find the race of people depicted in the carving, then in all likelihood, you have the nation where it was carved.

The broad flared nose and the fat, full lips in the first carving do not look like oriental/Thai/Bali features. In the second carving you have they do look like an oriental or Thai person.
 
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