Fighting Jacket Ornament

P259A

From: Borneo | Sarawak

Curatorial Section: Oceanian

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Object Number P259A
Current Location Collections Storage
Culture Kayan
Provenience Borneo | Sarawak
Section Oceanian
Materials Glass | Palm Leaf | Plant Fiber
Description

Fighting jacket ornament. Tagok. Sunang. For back of war coats. Butterfly-shaped patch of tiny yellow and black beadwork with a palm leaf backing. Across the top a row of yellow tubular beads, the remaining sides edged with red cloth and a fringe consisting of short strings of small yellow and black beads. At center top a double scroll. On one corner a length of twisted fiber, end tied in a loop. "All the women, too, and the girls . . . stitched, on the backs of war-coats, horn-bill feathers, or big butterflies embroidered in black and yellow beads." "The ornament of bead-work, shaped like a butterfly . . . is the feminine contribution toward the decoration of the war-coat." (The Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters)

Length 18 cm
Width 23 cm
Credit Line Gift of Dr. William H. Furness 3rd., 1898

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