Specifications

• Length: 211 cm
• Material: wood, casuary feathers, pigment
• Position: 
• Gender: 
• Indigenous name:
• Price realised: $ 56.375,-

Provenance

Paul Wirz (1892-1955), Basel; Serge Brignoni (1903-2002), Bern; private European collection; Sotheby’s New York 19-5-2001, lot 38.

Publications

Smidt, Dirk (1999), ‘Irian Jaya’, in Douglas Newton (ed.) Arts of the South Seas, 172-187

Additional information

‘As in other parts of New Guinea and the Pacific, a canoe could be seen as a symbolic representation of a social group. War canoes had elaborate prows consisting of various separate ornaments which could be slotted into a basic structure.’ (Smidt, 175)

Photo credits

Sotheby’s New York