African & Oceanic Art | Antiquities - 15th December 2021
Lot 966
A Batak dog oracle biang
Estimate £2,000 - £3,000
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Description
A Batak dog oracle biang
Samsoir Island, Sumatra, Indonesia
crouching with bared teeth and wearing a collar, the chest with a projecting head and the body with a scallop design and scrolling triangles to shoulders and hips, raised on a decorated rectangular base,
36.5cm high, 33cm long.
Provenance
Collected on Samosir Island.
Sotheby's, New York, 6th May 1998, lot 12.
cf. Achim Sibeth and Bruce W. Carpenter. Batak Sculpture, 2007, p.314, xi.09a-b.
These figures are usually described as dogs though they have lion like features and were used by the datu priests to tell fortunes.