Summary

Indonesian puppet which formed part of Monica Gates' national doll collection. It was purchased in Ubud, Bali in 1984.

The Gates collection contains 170 national dolls from 74 different countries and some correspondence relating to the acquisition of several of the dolls. The costumes of the dolls represent national costumes from the 19th Century to the 1990s. Monica Gates collected or was given these dolls between 1957 and 1990.

These dolls were purchased as souvenirs of particular countries and like many mass produced souvenirs they are often not accurate representations of a particular country or region, and may actually better reflect neighbouring counties or regions. This occurs because costumes are often stylised and simplified resulting dolls wearing generic costume elements which are common to many countries/regions. Often the fabrics and decorations used are selected to make the dolls cheap and easy to manufacture and aesthetically pleasing. This can result in the fabrics, colours and decorations of the doll's clothing having little or no reflection of the costume associated with a particular country or region they are meant to be representative of.

Physical Description

Wooden doll with face and other parts painted. Arms, neck and part of headpiece are gold. Front of body covered with red cloth trimmed with gold braid, and decorated with plastic silver and red buttons. Green sash at waist with two pieces of red ribbon from behind. A piece of red cloth trimmed with yellow tassels and decorated with gold and red plastic buttons hangs from the waist at the front. Skirt is of batik yellow material with brown and white Bamboo rods hang from the hands. Wrists and upper arms are painted red and blue. A tassel hangs from each side of the face,with bright yellow. Hair is swept up a at the back and is wood painted gold, black and green.

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