Lot 39
39
A GROUP OF SIX PAPUA NEW GUINEAN STONE CEREMONIAL ADZE BLADES
Buyers from within the EU: VAT payable at 20% on … Read more
A GROUP OF SIX PAPUA NEW GUINEAN STONE CEREMONIAL ADZE BLADES

LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Details
A GROUP OF SIX PAPUA NEW GUINEAN STONE CEREMONIAL ADZE BLADES
LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Tallest: 11 ½ in. (29.2 cm.), including later stand
Special notice
Buyers from within the EU: VAT payable at 20% on just the buyer’s premium (NOT the hammer price). Buyers from outside the EU: VAT payable at 20% on hammer price and buyer’s premium. If a buyer, having registered under a non-EU address, decides that the item is not to be exported from the EU, then he should advise Christie’s to this effect immediately.

Lot Essay

Please see www.christies.com for further information on this lot.
These special blades are worked from highly prized and exceptionally hard stone called chloromelanite, found in the Cycloop mountains North of Lake Santani, which varies in colour depending on the surrounding terrain from a light jade green to a near black. The process of creation was extremely labour intensive and once finished the blades, as well as being functional, were used in ceremonies and as part of the currency exchange system which established a stabilising system of obligations in Melanesian society.

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