Scale Model Of A Rice Granary – Cast From Chiseled Brass – Indonesia – Late 19th, Early 20th Century

Scale model of "Rangkiang", or rice granary from the Minangkabau region, west of the island of Sumatra (Indonesia) - folk art (4)

Cast chiseled brass - late 19th, early 20th century

total height 32.5cm
max length 13.5 cm
max width 10.5 cm
The piece is composed of 2 parts (one low and one high for the roof) - Old tin restoration on one of the roof sections.

The unique architecture of the Minangkabau has, since the 19th century, attracted the attention of Western explorers, ethnologists, architects and anthropologists. It seems that this type of scale models was produced to satisfy ethnographic collections from the second half of the 19th century (1868 – creation of the first ethnographic museum in Jakarta, the "Gedung Gajah") until the end of the 1930s. There is an important collection of these brass scale models in the collections of the ethnographic museum Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam.
Compare with similar pieces in the collections of the British Museum (1), the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore (2) or the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (3)

(1) https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=EAS18928
(2) https://www.roots.gov.sg/Collection-Landing/listing/1069569
(3) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Tweedelig_messingen_model_van_een_rijstschuur_TMnr_1508-22.jpg
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangkiang