Chest ornament

1907

A gold necklace (kawet badjeë) from which hangs a horizontal crescent moon. On this type of pendant, sometimes so called "anteng-anteng" are attached. These are smaller flat precious metal shapes, hanging from eyelets on the larger shape. \The moon shape is symmetrically decorated with figurines, built up from soldered, upright flat strips of precious metal, in a technique called ato. In this ato wire work motives are formed of leaf vines with plant and flower motives of leaves with round and pointed shapes. The round-shaped leaves are called on lipat, and the pointed leaves are called on sirong. This piece is the only one in this collection where wider and narrower strips have been used for decoration. As a result, this piece appears to have more relief than others in the collection. \Seventeen pebbles are set evenly on the plate, in a manner called eumpung mata or cow anam. The setting of a pebble is formed by a precious metal tube into which the pebble fits precisely. The upper edge of this cylinder is folded inward above the pebble in a few places, so that the pebble cannot fall out of the cylinder. \The chain has round links and closes with a "kawet", an S-shaped hook, which is passed at both ends through the last (slightly larger) eye of the chain, to close it. The middle part of the S-shaped clasp is wide and sometimes worked.‖ Mr. J. Veltman, the collector of a large collection of Aceh jewelry, was a Captain in the KNIL during the Aceh War, and later an administrative officer in Aceh. He was very interested in the culture, mastered the language and published about it. He was especially interested in the art of goldsmithing. According to him, in Aceh Prophet Abraham was considered the patron saint of gold- and silversmiths. He also wrote that the goldsmiths of Aceh were bothered by the Islamic ban on depicting living beings. However, Aceh's jewelry is richly decorated with flowers and foliage, reflecting Islamic ideas of Paradise. \Various techniques, such as filigree and granulation, were probably introduced to Aceh by silversmiths from the Ottoman Empire. From Aceh, these techniques spread throughout northern and western Sumatra.