Batak Fire Starter

Brass & Stone Fire Striker (Santik)

Batak People, Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia

19th century

length: 51cm

This fire striker or santik is from the Batak people who live around Lake Toba in north Sumatra. It comprises a heavy cast brass chain with two elaborately cast brass ends, one which incorporates an iron striker and the other which is embedded with a shaped flint rock (batu santik) against which the striker could be struck.

The brass mount for the iron striker is finely cast with singa and buffalo motifs. The mount for the flint is cast with bands of spheres and geometric motifs.

Such strikers were both ornamental and practical and were highly valued amongst Batak men. They were stored in leather bags when not in use.

See Feldman (1994, p. 40), Sibeth (1991, p. 173), Sibeth (2000, p. 67) and Sibeth & Carpenter (2007, p. 274) for related examples and parts of examples..

References

Feldman, J.A., Arc of the Ancestors: Indonesian Art from the Jerome L. Joss Collection at UCLA, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1994.

Sibeth, A., The Batak: Peoples of Island Sumatra, Thames & Hudson, 1991.

Sibeth, A., Batak: Kunst aus Sumatra, Museum fur Volkerkunde, 2000.

Sibeth, A., & B. Carpenter, Batak Sculpture, Editions Didier Millet, 2007.

Provenance

UK art market

Inventory no.: 2578

SOLD