A fine New Guinea tooth and shell head ornament

HERKULES BAY

Details

A fine New Guinea tooth and shell head ornament
Herkules Bay
Of crescent form, the fibre and rattan panel with inset band of large red seeds within nassa shell borders, lower border of teeth and small boar's tusks
18cm. long and wide

Provenance

Benningsen, Linden Museum, Stuttgart

Lot Essay

Cf. Heermann, I., and Menter, U., Schmuck der Südsee, Ornament und Symbol, Munich, 1990, p.69, pl.16. See also Bernatzig, H., Die Grosse Völkerkunde, Leipzig, 1939, p.315, fig.227, for a photograph of a man wearing such an ornament about the face

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