East Asian shield?
 

Not an area I am familiar with but I took a punt on this. Rather a gamble as these are the only pictures. Could be a tourist thing? I believe the diameter is 51cm. It might be possible, looking at the detail on the outer edge to accept the sellers notion that is is "OLD" The double bird imagery reminds me of Africa. I do not know what the animals suggest? If it is a tourist thing, crocs? eating what looks like your pet dog seems a really strange way of selling it! Follow up when I have it.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/cnhc/csl-maps-species.htm

Does it have a handle to hold it as a shield ?
Or is it a wooden plate to serve some exotic food...

Well it is certainly a shield. Servicable but quite crudly scraped out. There is a lot of warp to the wood none the less a lot of work went into making it. Dirty and very slightly damp. As I said, I know little of this stuff.

Trying to research the imagery displayed on this shield. Is it possible to be double hornbills and komodo gragons? The do not really look like crocodiles. If they are komodo dragons then that may hint to an origin?

They don't have to be komodo dragons. Other monitor lizards are widespread throughout Asia.

F

I believe many indeed most of the members here are "SEA" collectors in some way. All I have been able to find is that the hornbill and other birds, I think the birds on the shield resemble hornbills? are part of SEA art and culture. So too are lizards and some suff about dogs. The only other information comes from "Albert G. Van Zonneveld, Traditional Weapons Of The Indonesian Archipelago" where in the pages for shield round carvec wooden shields are mentioned. Origins could be from several places.

Hi Tim,
I know nothing of shields, but I do know tools. If you look at the back of the shield, the swirls in the wood appear to be made by an electric angle grinder or circular sander. That would say very modern. Just my opinion.
But it's still a cool piece.

Steve

Yes indeed. I thought possibly curved strokes with some kind of scraper but no. Well **** happens, to us all sometimes :D :D :o :eek:

The lizard definitely resemble monitor lizards or biawak. Does the level of intricacy or the style of the carvings suggest a region? Or perhaps the designs themselves? If those are indeed hornbills, the they are biawak, and the biawak are eating dogs... then maybe Borneo?

Is Borneo not known for hornbills, do Dayaks not have a lot of dog symbolism in their carvings and tattoos, and are biawak not very common there?

But does not look like a Dayak-style shield from the little I have seen in pictures... and hornbills, dogs, and monitor lizards are found in Africa as well...

Just a thought from am amateur :shrug:


But then again, maybe it was made more recently, and maybe for the tourist industry