Malay Woven Baskets Collected by Colonial Official Leonard Wray

These baskets of Malay origin, from the Malay Peninsular in what is present-day Malaysia are important for their provenance: they were collected in Malaya by Leonard Wray (1852-1942), a noted colonial administrator and museum curator.

Two are finely woven from pandan strips.

See a related Malay basket in the British Museum.

Such baskets were used by the Malays for a multitude of purposes – to hold and present gifts (especially in relation to weddings), to hold food, and perhaps jewellery items.

The Malays across the Malay Peninsula used pandan, mengkuang and bamboo strips to make baskets and bags. It is likely that these three were made in Perak state, the Malay state with which Wray was most associated.

The two Malay examples are in excellent condition.

Leonard Wray was a colonial British official who was born in Perak on the Malay Peninsula. He joined the Public Works Department of the Perak Civil Service in June 1881; worked as Superintendent at the Government Hill Garden, Larut, January 1882; and was appointed Curator at the Perak State Museum in Taiping, Perak, in January 1883. He collected and prepared the Perak exhibits for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886. He was appointed State Geologist, Perak, in January 1890; and served as Director of Museums, 1904-08. He also collected Malay artefacts in a private capacity and donated some of his collection to the British Museum in the 1930s. Wray made an important contribution to the preservation of knowledge of Malay material culture and was also important in extending knowledge of traditional Malay ways beyond the Malay Peninsula.