Juynboll,Hendrik Herman. — Wajang Kelitik oder Kerutjil.

Leiden, Buchhandlung und Druckerei E.J.Brill, 1900. 37 pp. 10 single-page col. lithograped plts (number V - XIV). Orig. softcover (light brown printed wrappers). 4to. - Spine strenghtened with strip of thin brown paper; cover torn & large parts of cover missing. (Orig. offprint from: Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, Band XIII. This influential German-language ethnographic study from 1900 was written by Dr. Hendrik Herman Juynboll (Delft, 24 July 1867 - Bethesda, Maryland, 22 October 1945). He was a Dutch Indologist and museum director. The work was originally published in Volume XIII of the renowned journal "Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie" in Leiden by Brill, but was also issued separately (as is the case with this copy). - The article is of great historical importance for the documentation of traditional Javanese puppet theatre. Juynboll's study focuses specifically on Wayang Klitiq (also known as Wayang Krucil). Unlike the better-known Wayang Kulit (made of buffalo hide for shadow puppetry), Wayang Klitiq consists of flat wooden puppets with movable leather arms. In this form, spectators do not watch a shadow on a screen but look directly at the painted puppets themselves. The stories performed in this style are traditionally not based on Indian epics (such as the Ramayana) but on East Javanese legends surrounding the Majapahit Kingdom and the hero Damar Wulan. In addition to its scholarly text, this publication is noted for its rare lithographic plates; it includes a set of ten full-page color lithographs depicting a total of twenty detailed images of Wayang puppets.