105 overall renovation. However, my colleagues in the Asian Art department graciously offered me space in their gallery to hold a temporary exhibition. To fit in with the department’s display, this showed selections from the Thompson Collection of Javanese gold (fig. 7). The exhibition coincided with a revised catalog of the entire collection, written by John Miksic.2 We also held an international symposium, Gold in Southeast Asia, with speakers from Asia, Europe, and North America.3 TEXTILES To the readers of this magazine, the department’s ethnographic sculpture and its textiles will be of special interest. Let me begin with a brief survey of the textiles. At the core are the almost 400 Indonesian textiles from the Holmgren-Spertus Collection. As is well known, in Indonesia weaving is done by women, as it is in much of Southeast Asia. This collection bears witness to the exceptionally high standards achieved in the wider region, creating truly great works of art. It is difficult to single out highlights in a group of textiles that is consistently of such high quality, but certainly the textiles from South Sumatra are particularly appealing. I know of no other collectors who were able to bring together textiles from the region that rival those of Holmgren and Spertus. Of the approximately 200 from South Sumatra, outstanding are the women’s skirts (tapis) from Lampung, which combine extremely fine cotton warp ikat with silk embroidered panels (fig. 5). Their designs remain enigmatic in their meaning, as production had ceased by the late nineteenth century. From recent radiocarbon dating we know that many of these textiles were made between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.4 Also exceptional is the collection of tampan, the socalled “ships’ cloths” woven with supplementary weft (fig. 6). Their designs often include boats that are festively decked out with flowering trees and creatures that resemble elephants or dragons. The human figures are shown in a profile view that is similar to the Javanese wayang style, pointing to the longstanding connections between South Sumatra and Java. These textiles are used in a ceremonial context as hangings and food covers during ranking feasts and at marriages. The third major group of South Sumatran textiles in the collection are the sumptuous silk weft-ikat textiles from Palembang and Bangka (limar) (fig. 8). Many of these also include gold or silver metal thread, woven in supplementary weft technique. Some are additionally embroidered with silk thread in Chinese style and tech- FIG. 7 (above): Crown top or ushnisha cover. Central Java. Early 10th century. Gold and crystal. Hunter and Valerie Thompson Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, inv. 2008.21.109. FIG. 8 (below): Shouldercloth, limar. Palembang, South Sumatra. 18th century. Silk, gold metal thread, sequins; weft ikat, embroidery. Robert J. Holmgren and Anita E. Spertus Collection. Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, Yale University Art Gallery, inv. ILE2006.4.145. FIG. 9 (right): Ceremonial weaving, paporitonoling. Galumpang Toraja, Sulawesi. Late 19th century. Cotton; warp ikat. Robert J. Holmgren and Anita E. Spertus Collection. Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, Yale University Art Gallery, inv. ILE2006.4.33.
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