A rare double ti'i showing two janus ancestors. Ti'i is the Tahitian word for tiki – man (ancestor) or by extension god – in the Polynesian pantheon. The double ti'i were undoubtedly used more as religious images in conjunction with ceremonies that took place within the marae then as the so-called fishing gods as was believed in the early scholarly publications. Tahitian double images (small and large) are much more rare then their Marquesan counterparts of which exist numerous examples are recorded in wood and stone. The present example has been modified at a later date but with stone tools to create the large circular eyes and the nose of the Marquesas style. The double image may have transited from Tahiti over to the Marquesas in the pre-contact period and was there re-appropriated.

Tahiti ?, Societe Islands, Polynesia. Basalt. 10,9 x 7,7 x 4,7 cm. 17/18th centuries. Originally acquired from Charles Ratton, Paris in 1955. Ex collection D’Arschot, Bruxelles; private collection, France. The wood base is in the style of Inagaki but probably by the Parisian base-maker Charles Boer. Ref.: Barrow, Terence: ART AND LIFE IN POLYNESIA. Charles E. Tuttle Co. 1973. LA TERRA DEI MOAI - DALLA POLINESIA ALL'ISOLA DI PASQUA. Erizzo Editrice, Milano. 1995.