Three Malay Ceremonial Woven Pandan Rice Sleeves Collected by Colonial Official Leonard Wray

These three rare sleeves or p0uches woven from pandan strips come with important provenance – they were  collected by Leonard Wray (1852-1942) who held many positions in colonial Perak on the Malay Peninsula in the late 19th century and early 20th century, including serving as Curator, at the Perak State Museum, and later as Director of Museums.

Importantly, attached to one of the three sleeves is a label handwritten in the hand of Leonard Wray. It reads: ‘Malay basket for bringing a small present of new rice’.

Traditionally, new rice was an important symbolic gift among Malays and it would be given at weddings including as part of the gift exchange (hantaran) between the families of the bride and groom.

The Malays across the Malay Peninsula used pandan, mengkuang and bamboo strips to make baskets and bags, but it is likely that these three sleeves were produced in Perak, most particularly because rice was grown in Perak and also Kedah and Perlis states.

The three sleeves here are in excellent condition.

Leonard Wray (1852-1942) 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.