A very fine New Caledonia ceremonial axe
The large disc of green jade, the wooden shaft bound with a strip of blue bark cloth and plaited fibre with red flying fox fur, clusters of pompoms of similar material to the woven finial
65cm. long
Provenance
Discovered in a ships' chandler's shop near St. Malo in the early 1950s
Lot Essay
Cf. another, similar, in Sarasin, F., Neu-Caledonien und die Loyalty-Inseln, Basel, 1917, p.60, fig.28