Malay-Style, Life-Sized, Silver Coconut Box

This large silver box shaped like a coconut is exceptionally well observed. The form is precisely like an unhusked, green coconut albeit with additional bands of floral decoration. The box has been fashioned from silver sheet that has been hammered so that it is quite thin. There is a small cover at the top with a handle or pull meant to emulate the coconut stem.

Almost certainly it is the product of local Chinese silversmiths working to Malay designs in Singapore around 1920. In the past, such silver has been ascribed either to Riau or Sumatra but such large pieces of finely hammered silver and silver alloy sheet only started to appear in collections from the 1920s-30s onwards, some decades after it was widely reported that Malay silversmiths had largely ceased working, the consequence of changing tastes, colonisation and the decline of the power and thus wealth of the Malay sultans in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.

A local report at the time mentions workshops in Singapore where local silversmiths produced large items of light-weight silver in a Malay style to satisfy local European demand (Backman, 2024, p, 33). It is likely that this item is one such piece, and thus is an interesting example of one of the first types of handicrafts unique to Singapore.

That the item is not of Malay manufacture and intended for the expatriate European market seeking curios from the ‘Other’ is suggested not only by the likely date of manufacture – around 1920 – but by the form which is unusual for an item of Malay silver but pleasing for European tastes. Coconuts are exotic and whilst coconuts played an important role in Malay food, and also had a ceremonial role in the Malay potong jambul or potong rambut ceremony, it is unlikely that a box based on a coconut this large would have been produced for a Malay client.

The potong jambul or potong rambut ceremony was built around a Malay child’s first haircut. A halved green coconut would be presented on a silver tray or dulang as part of an infant’s hair cutting ceremony whereby a lock of hair would be snipped off the baby’s head and then placed inside the coconut. Also known as the akikah (or akikat), the ritual shaving of a child’s head for the first time was an important celebration. Traditionally, it was also the first day that the child was allowed to tread the earth.  Large feasts would be held in conjunction with the ceremony. Theoretically, this would be the first time a baby’s hair would be cut but sometimes the ritual would be delayed for months or more until the parents could afford the celebrations.

The coconut would be decorated with paper stencils, or silver and gold beads for wealthier families. The coconut with the hair would then be buried in the ground. It is possible that silver coconuts were used among more aristocratic families. Indeed, an example attributed to Perak is illustrated in Henry Ling Roth’s 1910 book on Malay silver. But the Roth box is small – just 13.3cm high. Such boxes were ‘for ceremonial use at the first shaving of little boys’ heads and at ear piercing; also for enclosing a lock of hair of a bride at a wedding, after which it is buried under a banana tree, presumably for good luck, according to Roth.

It is possible that the box here is based on such an item, but it is more likely that it is among a group of objects made in Singapore in the 1920s and 30s as exotic keepsakes for Europeans.

As such, the vessel is an intriguing part of Singapore’s material culture story, though not necessarily a part of the story of Malay silversmithing.

The vessel is sculptural and in fine condition.

This actual item is illustrated in Backman (2024, p. 31).