A rare decorated war shield from the Trobriand Islands. The vernacular name for this type of shield is vayola. Only distinguished warriors used such shields, while others used undecorated ones. The painting on the shield is composed of birds, snakes and other elements. S.B. Fellowes, the first missionary in the Trobriand Islands, and Bronislaw Malinowski, the famous anthropologist, recorded different interpretations by local informants of the motifs on the shields. It is possible that some of the differences reflect different schools of painters. Western anthropologists have given speculative interpretations of the composition as a whole. For example, E.R. Leach suggested it represents a flying witch, much feared by Trobriand Islanders. In oppositions, R. Berndt claimed that it represents sexual intercourse. He suggested this was a daunt to opponents, as sex was forbidden before a battle. There is no evidence to support these interpretations. The back is adzed and scorched and the handles are made with two sections of cane pierced through the front of the shield and attached with a complex system of binding.

Kiriwina Island, Trobriand Islands, Northern Massim Area, PNG,
Melanesia. Wood & cane, with the original traditional pigments. 78,8 x 35,5 x 8 cm. 19th century. Ex coll. : Sir Henry Krips (Australian conductor – born in Austria, 1914-1988) who acquired it in London. Subsequently in the collection of Harry Beran, Sydney then to Alex Philips, Melbourne.

Harry Beran attributes the present shield to the painter of a shield which is now in the Aberdeen University Museum (inv. N° VII-103-7) and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue “Shark Tooth & Stone Blade“ as N° 67. This shield was gifted to Aberdeen by Sir William Macgregor, the first Governor of British New Guinea in 1899. It was published and the design elements were analyzed by Rev. S.B. Fellowes in 1898. Beran shows that the icongraphy, placement and paint work on the present shield are identical to those of the Aberdeen shield (see the Fellows description herewith) thus placing the making of the present shield in at least the last quarter of the 19th century.

Ref.:
• Beran, Harry: MASSIM TRIBAL ART-PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong. 1980.
• Beran, Harry: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE WAR SHIELDS OF THE TROBRIAND ISLANDS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA: An interpretation recorded by Malinowski and explained by Paramount Chief Pulayasi.' Presented at the VIIth Pacific Arts Association Symposium in Salem, 2005.
• Chave, Sophie: CULTURE MATERIELLE ET CREATION ARTISTIQUE EN PAYS MASSIM. Mémoire de Maîtrise, Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. 1987.
• Fellowes [i. e. Fellows] S.B. : KIRIWINA EMBLAZONED SHIELD. In Annual Report on British New Guinea, 1897-1898. Appendix JJ. Government Printer, Brisbane, 1898.
• Hunt, Charles (ed.): SHARK TOOTH & STONE BLADE. Exhibition catalogue. University of Aberdeen, Waverly Press, Aberdeen, n.d. (1982).
• Meyer, Anthony JP: OCEANIC ART / OZEANISCHE KUNST / ART OCEANIEN. Könemann Verlag, Köln. 1995.
• SHIELDS OF OCEANIA: ed.: Beran, Harry & Craig, Barry. Crawford House Press & Oceanic Art Society, Australia, 2005.