A superbe, and extremly rare carved wood fighting shield, or lave lave. The front is decorated with incised motifs in imitation of those found on the very common woven cane fighting shields and which represent a highly stylized human figure. In the present case the decor is augmented with a series of incised and painted dots that run symetrically down either side of the central “spine“. The rear of the shield is carved to represent the folded layers of pandanus leaves that form the padding on the cane ones. The carved elements on the rear are decorated with incised fringes and painted triangles. The handle attachments are carved as raised rounded lugs. A number of illegible penciled names and inscriptions are on the rear side along with a penciled inscription “SOLOMON ISLAND SHIELD“.

Very few of these wood shields are known to exist-probably less than 20 have been recorded.

An identical example from Florida Island is in the collections of the Völkerkunde Museum, Dresden, collected by Herr Scheidel in 1889, INV N° 32109 ; another is in the British Museum, London (see Edge-Partington) yet another is in the Field Museum, Chicago (see Force & Force) and finally there is the earliest know example collected by Ducamp de Rosamel in 1841 in the collections of the Château Muséee, Boulogne sur Mer, inv. N° 263.

Roviana Island (?), Solomon Islands, Melanesia. Alstonia wood with black, red and white pigments. 81 X 17.7 X 1 cm. Mid to late 19th century. Ex coll. Bill Evans, Sydney.

Ill. :
- Beran, Harry (ed.): OCEANIC and INDONESIAN ART, Collectors Choice. Exhibition catalogue, The Oceanic Art Society & Crawford House Publishing, Bathurst & Woollahra, 1998, page 85.
- Illustration in the forthcoming book : SHIELDS OF OCEANIA. Oceanic Art Society & Crawford House Press, Australia, 2003.
Ref. :
- Edge-Partington, J., 1895. AN ALBUM OF THE WEAPONS, TOOLS, ORNAMENTS, ARTICLES OF DRESS ETC. OF THE NATIVES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. SECOND SERIES. (Issued for private circulation by J. Edge-Partington and C. Heape).
- Force, M & R.W.: THE FULLER COLLECTION OF PACIFIC ARTEFACTS. Lund Humphries, London, 1971, page 217 INV. N° 276985. (The Fuller shield is probably by the same artist at least from the same workshop and shows identical design and carving techniques though of a simpler and less elaborate type as example above.
- ART PAPOU – AUSTRONESIENS ET PAPOUS DE NOUVELLE-GUINEE. Catalogue de l’éxposition, 9 Avril/30 Août 2000, M.A.A.O.A., Marseille. Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris; Musées de Marseille, 2000, Page 125, fig. 103.