 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||
|
|
A
highly important canoe figure head or nguzunguzu in the form
of a small human head with extended, prognathic features. The eyes and
facial paint are represented with dentate nautilus shell inlays. The
pupils are made of red seeds (right one missing) and the hair is composed
of grass seedpods set into putty-nut. The pierced attachment bar at
the rear of the head and the thick ridge under the chin are weathered
and un-painted.
This example is one of the five earliest ones collected by westerners during the early years of the discovery and exploration of the South Pacific Ocean. |
|
Other early examples are: Berlin M.f.V. 10979 obtained in 1839 in the Solomon’s by a Capt. Robert’s ; the British Museum 1968Oc3.1 which was obtained between 1830-40 by the maternal grandfather of the donor, a Mr. L.T. Hope who donated it to the British Museum in 1968. The original acquirer was a missionary with the London Missionary Society who had allegedly acquired the figurehead on Ra'iatea (Austral Islands) and not in the Solomons. New Georgia (Roviana) style, or its surrounding islands, Western Solomon Islands, Melanesia. Painted wood with shell and seeds. 22 x 13.5 x 16 cm. 19th century. Ex. Coll. Adrien Vincendon-Dumoulin (1811/1858), collected by him in the field, probably on Santa Isabel Island in November/December 1838, during the second South Pacific and Antarctic expedition of Dumont Durville on board the Astrolabe. Acquired at the Vente Astrolabe auction at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Gros & Delettrez Auctioneers, Lot 109, pp. 34/35, 26 May 2003. Sold by order of a descendant of Vincendon-Dumoulin. Ref. :
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|