A SINHALESE POLYCHROME-PAINTED AND LACQUERED WOODEN BOW AND SEVEN ARROWS
Possibly Kandy, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), late 18th - 19th century

Comprising a fine Sinhalese lacquered longbow of round cross-section, with tapering ends and thicker centre, the full cane painted in vermillion red, orpiment yellow, and black, and decorated with overlapping horizontal bands of beaded and geometric fretwork, the string now missing, 195cm long; and seven arrows, each made of hand-painted cane, their heads with spiky drop-shaped steel points except for one, the painted decoration on the cresting reminiscent of marvered glass designs in yellow, red, green, burgundy, silver, gold and black, the longest 76.4cm.

The Sinhalese people had a long and well-established archery tradition. A few longbows and arrows similar to our lot can be seen in private and museum collections, such as the National Museum in Colombo. The lacquered decoration on our longbow is called mātale work, also referred to as niyapoten vẹḍa or "finger-nail work". This refers to the fact that the lacquer is not applied with a brush. Instead, the highly viscous hot lacquer is pulled in strings using a stick, and the string is applied directly to the desired surface, its end cut off by the lacquer masters' fingernail. The resulting work is very distinctive, as explained by Ananda Coomaraswamy in Mediaeval Sinhalese art, 1908, pp. 215 - 217. An interesting and well-written blog on the art of Sinhalese lacquer can also be found on the website of Mandarin Mansion Antiques: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/article/sinhalese-lacquer-work.

A similar Sinhalese longbow was successfully sold in these Rooms, 29 October 2020, lot 417.