1959

TAIWAN: jacket money "cloth"

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Ethnographic Start Price:850.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
TAIWAN: jacket money  cloth
SOLD
2,200.00USD+ (440.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2021 May 14 @ 22:10UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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TAIWAN: jacket money "cloth", Opitz pg. 166-67 (lower plate example), Dubin pg. 237, 89 x 35cm (35" x 13 3/4"), made from more than 30,000 small polished shell and stone beads (by our conservative estimation) by the Atayal people ca. late 19th century, EF, RRR, ex Charles Opitz Collection. Each "money jacket" is made of some 2,600 strings of beads, each string consisting of 20-25 beads of polished shell or stone. The beads are sewn onto rectangular pieces of cloth, which are in turn sewn together to make the jacket. Due to its labor-intensive production, a complete jacket was a status symbol in Atayal society and worth five cattle and several wives. One example of this rare item can be found in the Shanghai Museum. The Atayal (Tàiya) are one of the several indigenous tribes of Taiwan (colletively called Gaoshan or "High Mountain" people in Mandarin Chinese) and have inhabited the island for over 5,000 years. They are a part of the Austronesian family that would migrate across Southeast Asia and settle as far away as Madagascar and Easter Island (Rapa Nui).