The incense burner from the Sambas treasures
This short note by Tan Yeok-Seong describes the bronze incense burner recovered from the Sambas hoard in West Borneo, identifying it as the most significant object in the collection and analysing its decorative elements in terms of their cultural affiliations (p. 19).
Summary
Tan provides a detailed physical description of the vessel: a rectangular-based bronze casket with a two-storeyed waggon-roof cover, standing cocks at the corners and sides, triangular perforations, impressed pillar-and-arch decoration around the walls, and four turtle feet (p. 19). He notes that Dr. Quaritch Wales compared the roof to one found in Kedah while suggesting the fighting cock may be a local addition, and that Mr. Basil Gray of the British Museum, while dating the associated figures to the 8th–10th century A.D., was inclined to place the incense casket considerably later (p. 20).
Tan then traces the decorative motifs to multiple cultural sources: the triangular perforation pattern to Indian examples (a Taxila casket), the standing birds to Chinese Han-period bronzes from Honan, the turtle feet to the Chinese Pi-hsai motif, and the pillar-and-arch design to art from lands west of India as noted by Dr. Dobby (pp. 20–22). He concludes that the vessel’s uniqueness and the multiplicity of influences it displays make it of far higher value than any other item in the Sambas collection for historical research (p. 22).