Of trident form, rising from a hollow shaft applied with foliate decorations to a pair of opposing dragon-like nagas each supporting on the back of its head a pierced single-edged blade, centered by a double-edged blade flanked by two smaller naga heads, the beasts detailed with upturned noses and open jaws revealing sharp fangs and long curling foliate tongues.

Provenance: Galleria La Balaustra Antichita, Bologna, Italy. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above (invoice not available). Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother’s business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Wear and casting irregularities. Minor losses, dings, little warping, signs of erosion, weathering, and corrosion. The bronze covered with a rich, naturally grown patina with vibrant malachite encrustations.

Weight: 3,102 g
Dimensions: Length 51.5 cm

With a modern stand. (2)

The present lot belongs to a group of halberd heads or finials found in large hoards of ceremonial objects obviously buried on purpose. Although each of these hoards contains ceremonial utensils used in religious ceremonies, the finials are emblems of royalty or nobility, carried in parades of loyal retainers rather than religious objects carried around in processions. The use of similar finials continued in the Javanese keratons until modern times.

Chinese contacts with Indonesia existed from at least as early as the Han dynasty, and trade between China and the various Indonesian kingdoms continued intermittently from that time. The closest association, however, existed during the Majapahit period, after Kublai Khan’s punitive expedition to Java in 1292 decisively ended the Singasari dynasty. The problem of to what precise degree Chinese prototypes influences Eastern Javanese dragon nagas of the second half of the thirteenth century remains unresolved, but there can be no doubt that Chinese designs served as partial inspiration, primarily by way of ceramics exported to Indonesia.

The halberd head blends two motifs frequently used for ceremonial objects, the dragon-like naga and the trident, into one single emblem. In ancient Indian literature, one specific duty of the nagas is the guarding of the amrita.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related Javanese halberd head with nagas and blades, dated to the second half of the 13^th century, 43.8 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2000.284.29a, b. Compare a closely related finial with nagas and blades, dated 13^th-14^th century, 17.5 cm, East Java, in the collection of the Museum Nasional, Jakarta, inventory number 844, and illustrated by Jan Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia, 1990, p. 266, no. 94.