The Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger, entry from 2005:
“No. 226, SU 1974, Borneo Batak”
Gallery price: EUR 990 or approx. EUR 1,700 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing.

Indonesia, late 19th to early 20th century. Boldly carved from a single piece of dense hardwood, the anthropomorphic post presenting a prismatic torso supported on two short, widely separated legs that form an arched opening above the long tapering shaft. The slender arms are rendered in low relief along either side of the torso and terminate in hands with incised fingers. The large oval head is marked by deep-set circular eyes, a long angular nose, a straight mouth, and prominent disc-shaped ears, and is surmounted by a low topknot.

Provenance: Laurits Sunde, Denmark, by 1974. Jorgen Ruben, acquired from the above. In the Jorgen Ruben Collection for 52 years. Laurits "Lau" Sunde (1910-1979) was an important Danish collector and dealer who played a pioneering role in introducing African art to Denmark and the wider Nordic region. He is particularly remembered for his interest in Yoruba art and culture, especially ere ibeji twin figures, which he promoted not only as works of art but also as expressions of the spiritual and ritual traditions of the Yoruba people. Jorgen Ruben is a Danish art dealer and collector who has been active for over four decades and is highly regarded in the fields of Asian art and classical antiquities. Raised in an art-conscious family, Ruben was exposed early to both modern painting and European decorative arts. He began working in the art trade in the mid-1970s, first with Persian rugs and later with antiques, while travels to Iran and a visit to Persepolis sparked his lasting interest in antiquity. After studies in Copenhagen and London, he worked in England with a dealer in early furniture, before travelling widely in Latin America and Asia, deepening his knowledge of regional art and culture. In 1984 Ruben opened a gallery in Copenhagen dealing in Asian antiquities. He was later active in London and, in the early 2000s, operated the Brussels gallery Classic Art. Much of his career, however, has been conducted privately from home, selling by appointment to collectors, galleries, and museums. Ruben has always bought selectively, choosing only works that deeply engaged him, and often keeping them for many years until placing them with a collector he felt truly understood them.
Important Note: For essential information on the Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger
Condition: Good condition with old wear, traces of weathering and erosion, small fissures, sparse chips, and occasional small dents. The wood with a fine, naturally grown, dark patina.

Weight: 800.9 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 49.7 cm (excl. stand), 51.7 cm (incl. stand)

With an associated wood stand. (2)

West Timor is home to several distinct but closely connected ethnolinguistic communities, most prominently the Atoni, also known as the Atoin Meto or Dawan, in the central and western highlands, and Tetun-speaking groups farther east around Belu. Their now greatly diminished carving traditions encompassed ancestor images, ritual posts, figurative doors, ceremonial spoons, containers, staffs, and other objects in which sculpture and function were often inseparable. Common to many of these works is an insistently frontal human presence, with an emphatic head and a body reduced to powerful geometric planes.

Images of founding ancestors are often described by the Tetum term ai tos, literally meaning hardwood, and were made in the form of both statues and posts. Such carvings were formerly placed at village entrances, beside graves, on stone altar platforms, and at secluded sites in the forest, where the ancestors were approached for protection, renewal, and ritual counsel. The integral tapering shaft of the present work indicates that it was conceived as a post-form image or as part of a larger structure or implement, rather than as a freestanding statuette. Although its precise original setting can no longer be determined, its fusion of anthropomorphic imagery with a functional lower member is characteristic of Timorese carving.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related Timor wood ancestor figure, dated 19th-20th century, in the Museon, The Hague, object number 48894.