Lot 225 Dα

This lot and the following two lots were formerly in the collection of H.J.A. Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt (1860-1936) and were on loan to the museum of the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam (later the Tropenmuseum) from 1915 until 1982.

H.J.A. Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt was born in 1860 in Riau, Sumatra. His father was a senior officer in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and his mother was from Riau. After serving in a number of posts in various locations in Indonesia he was appointed resident of Amboina (Ambon) in 1910. Following his retirement in 1915 his collection of more than 600 artefacts was loaned to the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam. After his death in 1936 his widow offered to sell the collection to the museum but the offer was declined. It was not until 1982 that his descendants terminated the loan and offered the collection for sale at Christie’s in Amsterdam on 22/23 June 1983. At the sale one figural post was acquired by the British Museum and another is now in the Thomas Jaffe collection at the Yale University Art Gallery.

For a detailed history of H.J.A. Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt and the dispersal of the collection see Arnold Wentholt, ‘De collectie H.J.S. Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt van museum naar veiling’ in Vereniging Vrienden Etnografica Jaarboek, 2021, pp.21-41.
We are grateful to Arnold Wentholt for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

Image : Room of Curiosities in van Oldenbarnevelt’s ‘Batu Gajah’ residence, April 1915
Dutch National Archives, Archive of the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (2.20.69), inventory number 4403.