Indonesian Art - Palm Bark Medicine Box

Indonesian Art - Frog Motif Palm Bark Medicine Box

A hand carved wood frog decorates the top of this unusual box, which is primarily used for the storage of medicinal herbs on the Isle of Lombok in Indonesia.

The artisan who made this box has made creative use of local materials. The top of the lid is wood trimmed with rattan on the edges, which provides the framework to hold both the wood and the palm bark sides of the lid in place. The sides of the box are decorated with thin bamboo slats and more palm bark at the bottom, and held together by woven sea grass and molded rattan strips.