INDONESIA, BALI.

19TH CENTURY.

SIZE (U.K.): S ½.

SIZE (U.S.A.) 9 ¼.

A superbly worked and ingeniously designed gold ring decorated with raised floral and granular designs, with a cabochon moonstone secured in a tubular mount with tumpal motifs around the sides, the shoulders with a pair of long-tailed birds with their curved beaks raised to secure the stone.

A tumpal is a triangular form often used as a motif in a row at the fringed end of a textile.

The traditional centre for Balinese goldsmiths and silversmiths (known as pandé mas) is located near the old royal courts of Gelgel and Klungkung in Kamasan, in the south-eastern part of the island. Balinese jewellery was made from a mixed alloy of gold and silver.

For a similar ring, see cat. no. 170 in Arne und Eva Eggebrecht (eds.), Versunkene Koenigreiche Indonesiens, Exhibition catalogue, Mainz, Germany: Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, 1995.