New Guinea, highlands, Dugum Dani: 'stone-money' for the bride price.
These large, relatively thin, polished and decorated ‘blades’ made of green slate were important valuable objects to the Dugum Dani of the Baliem Valley in the highlands of New Guinea (today: Irian Jaya). They were used to pay the bride price during wedding transactions and large-scale barter negotiations between families. The present object is a very good, old example of ‘Dani money’: made of beautiful, green stone, hardly damaged, and opulently decorated in the middle: with a wide wrap made of braided orchid stems and a wreath made of plant fibre stripes, as well as with the lower jaw of a bat (‘flying dog’) and dried pieces of animal skin. With old patina. First half of the 20th century or earlier; L: c. 60 cm. (ME)
Literature: ‘Ozeanische Kunst’ by Anthony J. P. Meyer, p. 408, ill. 461.
Specialist: Erwin Melchardt
Erwin Melchardt
+43-1-515 60-465
erwin.melchardt@dorotheum.at
24.03.2014 - 16:00
- Estimate:
-
EUR 1,400.- to EUR 1,800.-
New Guinea, highlands, Dugum Dani: 'stone-money' for the bride price.
These large, relatively thin, polished and decorated ‘blades’ made of green slate were important valuable objects to the Dugum Dani of the Baliem Valley in the highlands of New Guinea (today: Irian Jaya). They were used to pay the bride price during wedding transactions and large-scale barter negotiations between families. The present object is a very good, old example of ‘Dani money’: made of beautiful, green stone, hardly damaged, and opulently decorated in the middle: with a wide wrap made of braided orchid stems and a wreath made of plant fibre stripes, as well as with the lower jaw of a bat (‘flying dog’) and dried pieces of animal skin. With old patina. First half of the 20th century or earlier; L: c. 60 cm. (ME)
Literature: ‘Ozeanische Kunst’ by Anthony J. P. Meyer, p. 408, ill. 461.
Specialist: Erwin Melchardt
Erwin Melchardt
+43-1-515 60-465
erwin.melchardt@dorotheum.at
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| Auction: | Tribal Art |
| Auction type: | Saleroom auction |
| Date: | 24.03.2014 - 16:00 |
| Location: | Vienna | Palais Dorotheum |
| Exhibition: | 18.03. - 24.03.2014 |