Featured Bali woodcarving in frame

Picked this piece up this evening, seller told me she purchased it in a Vancouver antique store in the early 1970's.
Frame looks like teak and measures approx 20" x 30", not sure what wood the subject is, but it seems more dense and a bit darker in colour.
I guess it depicts part of the story of Rama?

 

If teak, and 20" X 30", must be heavy?? Strange goings on in it!!! @Any Jewelry, @Bronwen??

 

Super, superb

Can't stop looking and getting lost in it !

 

It's about 3" thick too!

 

What's something like this worth blooey ?, I can only imagine

The throat grab is so provocative

 

I want it

 

I'll give you first refusal Charlie!

 

that'll keep you staring at it for a while..............
good eye !

 

It is gorgeous, blooey. But not Bali.
These 3D friezes and carvings are made in Jepara, on Java's north coast. And yes, teak, from East Java, where the best teak is from. The subjects are from Javanese history and mythology, generally Hindu-based.
There are so many stories this could have been a scene from. It looks like the character on the far right is Hindu God Indra, wielding his vajra mace.

Although Jepara/Japara has been a woodcarving and furniture manufacturing centre for centuries, I have never seen pre-war 3D friezes. So I guess yours wasn't too old when it appeared in Vancouver in the 70s.

Here is one of mine, depicting Sinta and the Golden Hind, a scene from the Hindu epic Ramayana. It is smaller than yours, but it shows the layered effect very nicely. All carved from one piece of teak. Unfortunately the lacquer is coming loose in places.

 

Thanks for the info AJ!

 

I have two other small friezes very much like yours, but luckily are just "raw wood" so there's no finish to come loose.

 

I think the "raw wood" ones are later than mine. They came to their senses.
There are no flakes or bubbles in the lacquer layer, just lighter patches. Oil etc don't work, and the piece is too intricate to remove the layer. I will just have to live with it.

 

these are the other two pieces, sorry the pics are not too good

 

Beautiful nonetheless.

 

Well last night I took a look and read about the Jepara woodcarvings. They are indeed quite something!

While perusing various examples of Jepara work, looking for similarities between my pieces and the Jepara style, I kept running across a lot of other carvings almost exclusively described as Balinese.
These pieces were much closer in subject matter and technique to my carvings than what I saw described as Jepara work so what I'm wondering is ...are these "Balinese" carvings I see mis-identified Javanese/Jepara pieces?

As a new student of Balinese style, I think I assumed my pieces were from Bali at first because the figure with the long fingernails at the crest of the frame reminded me of some Balinese masks.

 

It is generally the other way around, all Indonesian art is seen as Balinese.

They are neighbouring islands, with ancient trade contacts and alliances.
Bali used to be a colony of East Java during the Majapahit Empire, 1295-ca 1500. After the fall of Majapahit, the Javanese governors stayed on Bali as kings, and introduced Javanese symbolism and art in Bali. The Balinese kings kidnapped people in East Java and on Madura (near Bali and East Java) for slave labour in agriculture, architecture and crafts. This went on for centuries.
Around the same time many people from West Java fled to Bali to escape the wars brought about by the introduction of Islam in West Indonesia.
Because of all these different aspects much of Balinese symbolism is of Javanese origin, though generally not as finely executed.
The only truly native Balinese art is made by a people called the Bali Aga, it is very rare.

 

So who's the guy on top of the frame?

 

Bonaspati, Lord of the Forests, he protects entrances, gates etc.