A DAYAK BABY CARRIER

A DAYAK BABY CARRIER
BORNEO, INDONESIA
carved wood with bamboo inlay, the scroll frieze above three fanged ancestor heads and linked stylised bodies, with two further masks, to an interlaced ribbon lower band, the shaped end base with a linear carved top with a central inlaid bamboo boss,
39cm high, 46cm wide, 18.2cm deep

Provenance
Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau (1894–1974) Paramount Chief of the Kayan-Kenyah people, remembered throughout Borneo as the "Father of Baram".
Private Collection, Malaysia, gifted from the above 1973, thence by descent.

Lot Information
This exceptional carved ba (baby carrier), created by the Kenyah Dayak people of Borneo, was designed to protect the child within from spiritual danger. Consigned from a private collection, it was gifted over 50 years ago by Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau (1894–1974), Paramount Chief of the Kayan-Kenyah people. Carved from dense Bornean ironwood (Belian), the carrier is adorned with three boldly carved udok (ancestral faces) with bamboo-disc inlaid eyes. The quality of the carving and the use of restricted decorative motifs indicate ownership by a noble Kenyah family, who held exclusive rights to such imagery.

Among the Kenyah, it was believed that a young child's soul was not yet firmly attached to the body. The ba therefore served as both a practical carrier and a powerful spiritual safeguard. The expressive ancestral faces, with flared nostrils, fangs and bared teeth, were intended to repel malevolent forces, while the unusual incised geometric decoration beneath the seat provided further spiritual protection.

Comparable examples are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number 1987.453.2); Yale University Art Gallery (loan number ILE2012.30.287); the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles (accession number X85.1076); the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (accession number 797) and the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (object number A.1980.54).

Auction result comparison
Galerie Zacke, Vienna, Austria, 11 April 2024, lot 212
Price: EUR 13,000
Description: A bamboo-inlaid wood 'udok' Dayak baby carrier, Bahau, Borneo, late 19th to early 20th century
Sotheby’s Paris, 14 December 2016, lot 39
Price: EUR 68,750
Description: Baby carrier, Dayak, Borneo