Mixed lot (2 items), Oceania, New Britain, tribes: Mengen or Nakanai: two rare, flat, plaited bracelets, decorated with nassa shells on the outside. Worn on the head as ornaments and valuable objects ('primitive money'). Very rare!
Mixed lot (2 items), Oceania, New Britain, tribes: Mengen or Nakanai: two rare, flat, plaited bracelets, decorated with nassa shells on the outside. Worn on the head as ornaments and valuable objects ('primitive money'). Very rare!
Bracelets such as the present ones – flat, densely knotted with brown plant fibres and decorated with small, pierced nassa sea shells all around their outer edges – used to be worn on the head among the Mengen and Nakanai people on the island of New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago in Melanesia). Mostly in stacks of multiple pieces: the bracelets with smaller inner diameter at the base, and those with a larger diameter on top. Such bracelets were used both as ornaments and ‘pre-numismatic currency’ (‘primitive money’) in transactions between families and clans (e.g. for the payment of the bride price). In excellent condition, no damage. Very rare! Diameter: 16 cm x 17 cm + 17 cm x 18 cm (on the inside); 25.5 cm x 27 cm + 27 cm x 27.5 cm (on the outside); width of the bracelets: c. 5 cm. Between the 19th and the early 20th centuries. (ME)
Provenance:
German Private Collection.
Lit.:
'Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee', 1907, by Richard Parkinson, ill. 26, no. 17/18; 'Archipel Bismarck', catalogue, by Jean-Edouard Carlier, ill. 82.
Specialist: Erwin Melchardt
Erwin Melchardt
+43-1-515 60-465
erwin.melchardt@dorotheum.at
09.06.2016 - 17:00
- Starting bid:
-
EUR 400.-
Mixed lot (2 items), Oceania, New Britain, tribes: Mengen or Nakanai: two rare, flat, plaited bracelets, decorated with nassa shells on the outside. Worn on the head as ornaments and valuable objects ('primitive money'). Very rare!
Bracelets such as the present ones – flat, densely knotted with brown plant fibres and decorated with small, pierced nassa sea shells all around their outer edges – used to be worn on the head among the Mengen and Nakanai people on the island of New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago in Melanesia). Mostly in stacks of multiple pieces: the bracelets with smaller inner diameter at the base, and those with a larger diameter on top. Such bracelets were used both as ornaments and ‘pre-numismatic currency’ (‘primitive money’) in transactions between families and clans (e.g. for the payment of the bride price). In excellent condition, no damage. Very rare! Diameter: 16 cm x 17 cm + 17 cm x 18 cm (on the inside); 25.5 cm x 27 cm + 27 cm x 27.5 cm (on the outside); width of the bracelets: c. 5 cm. Between the 19th and the early 20th centuries. (ME)
Provenance:
German Private Collection.
Lit.:
'Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee', 1907, by Richard Parkinson, ill. 26, no. 17/18; 'Archipel Bismarck', catalogue, by Jean-Edouard Carlier, ill. 82.
Specialist: Erwin Melchardt
Erwin Melchardt
+43-1-515 60-465
erwin.melchardt@dorotheum.at
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| Auction: | Tribal Art - Africa |
| Auction type: | Saleroom auction |
| Date: | 09.06.2016 - 17:00 |
| Location: | Vienna | Palais Dorotheum |
| Exhibition: | 04.06. - 09.06.2016 |