Central Javanese oil lamps sometimes had a stylized handle in the form of a mythical aquatic creature (makara) with a long scrolling foliate tail and a rearing lion (simha) emerging from its wide open mouth. The LACMA foliate handle is fashioned in this form. Foliate handles with makaras were previously attributed to Eastern Java but were reattributed to Central Java by Marijke J. Klokke. See A. J. Bernet Kempers, Ancient Indonesian Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 98, pls. 313-314; J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Indo-Javanese Metalwork (Stuttgart: Linden-Museum, 1984), pp. 165-167, nos. 143-145, especially p. 167, no. 145; and Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer and Marijke J. Klokke, Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian Bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988), pp. 164-166, nos. 112-114, especially p. 164, no. 112.
A closely comparable foliate handle is in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart (SA 35 322 L).