Posted 8 years ago
vmocak
(1 item)
My friend, who recently died, had a large collection of native american, balinese, and south pacific art. I purchased these from his estate but I do not know the origin of these and haven't been able to find anything similar on line. They are wood with perhaps horn, the back of each figure has a carving of a frog (I think) that goes from the bone to the wood up the back.
I had some like them and tying to remember where they came from I keep thinking Bali Indonesia. Bone and tops come off right ? Tourist souvenirs. As I remember mine also had that carving on back I thought it was a greco lizard .Mine look older and got them new in late 1980s and they separated to put something in .
Gee my memory is better than I thought here they are and I did know they were fertility dolls
http://www.tibetnepalimports.com/c011.html
The fertility dolls consist of a male and female. Both are
hand-carved from wood and bone. The legs and arms are
movable and can be positioned so the dolls will sit down.
Each doll can be opened at the chest to reveal a compartment.
The belief is that if you want to get pregnant the man puts a wish
into the body of the male doll and the woman into the female
doll and then the dolls are sealed so they can no longer be
opened These dolls are actually made in Indonesia.
Thank you so much! It makes sense that they are from Bali, he spent a lot of time there. The top wooden part does separate from the bone which is hollow.
They may have been purchased in Bali, but they are actually from Lombok, Indonesia. Popular tourist items based on Lombok ancestor figures.