A KAYAN DAYAK KLAU SHIELD, KALIMANTAN, BORNEO, INDONESIA, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Carved from lightweight jelutong wood, of elongated hexagonal form, vertically creased along its center. The front boldly decorated with a centrally placed, mask-like face exhibiting fanged teeth, surrounded by scrolling vegetal motifs that continue onto the reverse. Each tapering end with two lines of rattan fiber, once used to suspend horizontal bands of attached hair. A central handle on the back serves as the grip.

Provenance: Galerie Davide Manfredi, Paris, 2008. Collection of Arnaud Kurc, Paris, acquired from the above. Davide Manfredi is a Paris-based dealer of tribal and ancient art from Southeast Asia who has traveled extensively in the region since the 1970s. Since 2008, he has owned and operated Galerie Pascassio Manfredi together with Alexandra Pascassio. Their clientele includes prominent private collectors of tribal art in Europe, North America, and Asia. The gallery has also placed objects in the collections of esteemed institutions such as the Musée du Quai Branly, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museo Pigorini, the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Asian Civilizations Museum. Arnaud Kurc is a French collector of tribal art, celebrated for his extravagant mounts and long-standing collaborations with major galleries and auction houses in Paris.
Condition: Good condition with wear, traces of use, minor age cracks, signs of weathering, minor nicks, small chips, minute dents, light fading and minor losses to pigments. A section of the right edge of the shield with old repair. The rattan bands partially fractured.

Weight: 1,650 g
Dimensions: Height 121 cm

Of all the shields from island Southeast Asia, arguably the type most readily recognizable by collectors for their artistry and highly varied patterns are from Borneo. Originally of Kenyah or Kayan origin and locally known as a kliau, klebit bok, kelempit, talawang, or terbai, over time this shield type was adopted by the Iban and other tribes owing to its streamlined ergonomics and martial efficiency. It is an oblong fighting shield carved from strong but lightweight jelutong wood not meant to receive a spear point, but to divert the spear by a twist of the hand. Each end of this shield type is tapered to an acute point that could be used to stabilize it against the ground, jam it into an opponent, or be offered up in a deadly feint, the latter utilizing the rattan bands that run horizontally across the shield, which while strengthening its general resilience and preventing it from shattering, also allowed a clever combatant to snare an opponent’s sword.

For lengthy discussion of Dayak shields, including numerous comparisons, see Steven G. Alpert, “Dayak Shields: Courting and Defying Death”, in Bill Evans (ed.), War Art & Ritual. Shields from the Pacific, vol. 1, 2019, p. 24-39. A copy is available upon request.

From the outset of its discovery by Europeans in the sixteenth century, the peoples of the island of Borneo, some of whom were reputed to be fierce warriors and avid head-hunters, together with their vast equatorial forests, myriad rivers, and unknown species of flora and fauna, ignited in the Western imagination an immense interest in this exotic landscape. Facts and fictions were eagerly recorded in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century memoirs and travelogues, as well as being carefully documented by early colonial officials, ethnographers, and expeditions of zoologists and naturalists. These hardy individuals were the first alien collectors of Dayak shields.

The people who produced these shields are generically known as Dyak or Diak in older literature and more recently as Dayak, a word that many believe was derived from the ancient Austronesian word ‘Daya’, meaning ‘towards the interior’. The term was already in use before the arrival of Europeans but was popularized and further codified in the nineteenth century as a colonial convenience. Today, the word ‘Dayak’ is still generically used to describe the more than 200 groups, most living in the interior of the island, who share similar traits from a common Austronesian heritage.

Being an indigenous tribe in Borneo, the Kayan people are similar to their neighbors, the Kenyah tribe, with which they are grouped together with the Bahau people under the Apo Kayan people group. The Kayan people are categorized as a part of the Dayak people. They are distinct from, and not to be confused with, the Kayan people of Myanmar. Their basic culture is similar to the other Dayak people in Borneo. Traditionally, they live in long houses on river banks. Their settlement consists of one or several long houses as long as 300 meters, which can accommodate up to 100 families (400–600 people) and consist of a common veranda and rooms. Residents of a long house constitute a tribal community.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 8 November 2021, lot 71
Estimate: EUR 15,000 or approx. EUR 18,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: Kayan Dayak klau shield, Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and motifs. Note the size (128 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 12 December 2018, lot 38
Price: EUR 32,500 or approx. EUR 38,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Dayak Shield, Borneo, Indonesia
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and motifs. Note the near-identical size (120 cm).