An Admiralty Islands ceremonial ladle Melanesia coconut

An Admiralty Islands ceremonial ladle

Melanesia

coconut, wood, nut paste and pigment, the handle carved as a figure with a curved back and a 'tooth' edge, 19th century,

28cm high, on a stand. (2)

Provenance

Field collected by Otto Ernst, Hamburg.

Dorothee Alsen (daughter of Otto Ernst), Hamburg.

Unteroffizier Otto Ernst was on S.M.S. Condor and collected the ladle during the ships stop in the Admiralty Islands in January 1912.

cf. Admiralty Islands, art from the south seas, museum Rietberg, Zurich, 2002, p.128, pl.33 for a canoe prow from Pitiliu Island, which bears similarities to the handle.