a fine marquesas islands shell headdress

PA'E KEHA, WITH HAIR TASSEL, PAVAHINA

Details

a fine marquesas islands shell headdress
pa'e keha, with hair tassel, pavahina
Composed of seven curved turtle-shell plates with carved tiki figures alternating with fluted triton shell sections, each panel pierced and bound to woven coconut fibre band sewn with twenty-nine trade buttons each with turtle-shell rosette, each end with tapered pearl-shell section with applied turtle-shell panel; the tassel of white human hair bound in tufts from six clusters
40.5cm. long

Literature

Biebuyck, D., and Van den Abbeele, N., The Power of Headdresses, Brussels, 1984, p.238, Pl.191

Exhibited

Ta'aroa, L'Univers polynesien, Brussels, 1982, no.69

Lot Essay

Such magnificent ornaments were worn by chiefs and warriors during dances, mainly in the southern islands of the Marquesas group (Panoff, M., Trsors des Iles Marquises, Paris, 1995, who illustrates one in the Muse de l'Homme, Paris, p.113, no.56). Biebuyck writes that such a headdress is often combined with the hair ornament usually taken from the beard of an old male relative, so that the plume-like element conveys the effect of swiftness.

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