Featured Parasol, Age/Period Advise? & Uses?

Hi there,
I was given this antique looking Parasol/Umbrella as a gift from a friend. I do not know anything about it?






According to my friend, the umbrella part was used in India on top of elephants back in the day? it has a new pole and base.
Imported way back when to Cape Town?
If anyone has any info on an item like this that would be kind.
Apologies if this may be posted in the wrong Category.

Robyn

 

First Robyn, howdy. Guess if your howdah does not have a canopy, you get a servant to hold one of these.


Don't worry too much about categories. Suspect most of us get on to new posts from the list on the right side of every page, not by looking in the forums.

 

Hey there! thanks so much for the response. The umbrella is quite large, too large to hold by hand, and extremely heavy.
Do you have any idea how one can date a piece like this and the value thereof?
I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to antiques and collectibles so any advice would be highly appreciated!

Thank you!!

 

I'm still a bit of a newbie here myself, although have so much fun participating I became a 'well-known member' within a day or 2. And I'm an absolute neophyte when it comes to howdah parasols. Guessing then that it always fitted into a stand, which was probably bolted on. As to age...? Certainly looks as though it has seen its share of years and of sun. Still in pretty good condition. I love it!

 

I love it too! Was obsessed with it when I saw it the first time, hence my friend buying it for me. I am just so curious about its origin. I appreciate you helping out! If you ever somehow stumble upon something remotely simialar, send me a message!

 

Just as a very general answer to this question, I have found that first you need to gather the most accurate terms you can find for the item (which is why I wanted to bring the word 'howdah' to your attention) & then start searching on line using those terms, particularly for sales sites & past sales to see if there are others out there, whether they sold & for how much.

The worth of anything is only the highest amount someone is willing to pay for it today. There is no absolute fixed value. If you are looking into selling it, others are sure to have advice, but mine would be to first see if you can establish a base line value, then sell it as an auction with the best description/pix you can & let it find its proper current value.

 

Your last message came in while I was writing. See you are not wanting to sell, just to have a better idea of what you have (& maybe see if your friend paid a reasonable price?) This might still be best accomplished if you went about it as though you were going to sell it.

 

Looks like past sale results will not help.

 

Thank you, I will definitely do that. I don't think I'll be able to let go of such an item, to be honest, it's more about curiosity. And as you said seeing if my friend paid a fair price!

Looks like I have quite some research ahead of me! and thanks for the "howda" did not know that's what they called it You are a big help!

 

We're a whole community of big helpers (& enablers!)

 

Looking at the photo again, I think the man I assume to be a servant is holding on to the parasol pole to steady himself or it, but not holding it up. So this is probably about how your wonderful gift was used.

 

I hope so! I like the idea of it being used for something exotic like that!
Bummer on the Past sale results though. Was hoping for a hit.
At the moment going through Google and Pinterest to find something remotely similar, still no luck.

 

...first you have to find the elephant...he's somewhere in the room...

 

I see what you did there

 

Given the weight, it could have been a stationary parasol for a dignitary.
Parasols in South and Southeast Asia are not only used to protect against the sun, but are also a symbol of status and/or spirituality.
Here is a sultan of Sumenep, Madura, Indonesia. The gold colour of the parasol indicates his high status, both worldly and spiritually:


Parasol just as a symbol of worldly and spiritual status, regent of Bangkalan, Madura:

 

Here's something similar -- albeit much more lux -- with illuminating description.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/553239135468236132/

Debora

 

Beautiful, Debora. The term royalty in the description needs some explanation.
During the time the parasol was made, most royalty and officials in Indonesia followed the Javanese system of 'colour-coding'.
A red parasol would have been for a government minister, who would be an aristocrat. Possibly of royal descent, but not royalty as such.

The colour-coding for umbrellas/parasols for 'proper' royalty are as follows:
Gold is only for the ruler himself. The two gents above (my distant relatives) had the right to a gold-coloured parasol.
The Javanese/Madurese, being the charming people they are, granted the Dutch governor general and the resident governors the same right to the use of the colour gold.
The queen and her children had the right to a yellow parasol, the 'lesser' wives and their children a white one.
Lesser royalty, often regents with a native rank below the former supreme king (in the case of Madura, the ruler of Bangkalan), had a green parasol with gold embroidery.

Complicated? This is the easy part of the highly formalized Indonesian hierarchical culture.
When I meet another person of Indonesian descent here in the Netherlands, it is considered good manners to establish each other's hierarchical origin in polite conversation. We would never do that with a Dutch-Dutch person, so it shouldn't still be important, but it is. It does not affect friendship or anything, it is just symbolic.
It is all part of 'adat', Indonesian traditional law, which overrules any other kind of law or custom. The conflict between adat and Islamic law is one of the reasons Islamic fundamentalists target Indonesia, but that is a whole other story.

 

Wow! Not that there is hope of my ever getting to Indonesia, but I DO like knowing about such customs.

 

Ditto here! Interesting learning about different cultures, very informative.