In Focus

The following essay is from the 1989 publication American Furniture in the Bybee Collection, by Charles L. Venable. In this essay, Venable attributes this piece to cabinetmaker Henry Rust. Later scholarship reveals that it was made by Nathaniel Gould.

The following essay is from the 1989 publication American Furniture in the Bybee Collection, by Charles L. Venable.

This striking and unusual textile differs significantly from the other examples of men's cloths (hinggi) in the Dallas Museum of Art collection. It is divided into seven horizontal bands, and its motifs and coloration produce a bold overall abstraction of aquatic life.

The name lau pahudu is derived from the verb hudu, which means "to land, to fish, to catch in a dip net," and pahudu, meaning something that has been "landed" or "caught." Appropriately, the dominant motif of this supplementary warp skirt is an extraordinary, large, and bold fish. 

Supplementary warp weaving, though rare in Indonesia, is practiced in East Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands) and on the islands of Bali, Timor, and Ternate, and on Tidore in the Moluccas. Best known, however, are women's skirts (lau pahudu) from Sumba. Here, these valuable cloths are woven by women of the nobility and worn by them only on important ceremonial occasions.

For centuries, forging gold dishes such as these was an important tradition on the small island of Kisar in western Maluku Tenggara. The first reference to these precious objects in Western literature dates to 1705.

This sarita is a truly spectacular example in which the paired panels display an unusual variety of finely executed motifs, creating a sense of vibrant rhythm. It has been crisply executed in the local batik technique and dyed with indigo.

The people of Kalumpang, in the region of the Sa'dan highlands to the northwest of Tana Toraja, are famed for their production of ikat textiles, which were used for ceremonial display or as shrouds.

The term sekonmandi appears to refer to a group of villages in the Kalumpang area where this style of warp ikat weaving originates. Working on the backstrap loom restricts the width of the cloth that can be woven; the larger textiles from this region are therefore assembled from multiple parts.

The following essay is from the 1989 publication American Furniture in the Bybee Collection, by Charles L. Venable.