Burma [Myanmar], ca. 1920. Two watercolour and gouache paintings on Whatman paper. 8vo-sized (images ca. 24.0 x 19.9 cm). Heightened with white body colour; each signed "M. T. Hla" in lower right corner, uniformly mounted. Mounts 30.5 x 24.6 cm.

A suite of two beautiful, very detailed, and accurately coloured images of women from Burma, in contemporary clothing, belonging to two different tribes, viz., a Kachin (Hill tribe) woman in traditional dress, and a young Padaung "Long Neck" woman with a parasol. "Padaung (Yan Pa Doung) is a Shan term for the Kayan Lahwi (the group in which women wear the brass neck rings). Women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe are well known for wearing neck rings, brass coils that are placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it. Girls first start to wear rings when they are around 5 years old. Over the years, the coil is replaced by a longer one and more turns are added. The weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage. The rings can stretch their necks to a length of about 15 inches (38 cm), pushing down the collarbone, compressing the rib cage, and pulling up about four thoracic vertebrae into the neck. Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested. Anthropologists have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves, making them less attractive to other tribes. It has also been theorised that the coils originate from the desire to look more attractive by exaggerating sexual dimorphism, as women have more slender necks than men. It has also been suggested that the coils give the women resemblance to a dragon, an important figure in Kayan folklore. The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically. Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, and often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty)." (Wikipedia). This is the work of the Burmese painter and illustrator Maung Tun Hla - also known as U Tun Hla (1874-1946), who is renowned for his oil paintings of Burmese landscapes. He "...was an early pioneer watercolour and oil painter of Burma who painted in the Western style." (Wikipedia). Signed near the feet of each person. With on the rear of each frame a large label of Smart & Mookerdum, Booksellers Stationers, Sofaer's Buildings, Rangoon. Remarkable for artwork made in the tropics, there is no toning or spotting. A unique ensemble of exceedingly high quality.