Specifications

• Height:43 cm.
• Material: wood
• Position:
• Gender:
• Indigenous name: intau
• Price realised: € 11.005,-

Provenance

W.E.C. Veen (1890-1940), government official in the Dutch East-Indies, acq in the 1910s; thnce through family descent; Van Spengen, Hilversum 30-9-2021, lot 3504.

Publications

Ref.: Hoogerbrugge, Jac. (1967), ‘Sentani-meer, mythe en ornament’ in Kultuurpatronen 9: 63-67.

Exhibitions

Additional information

This hook is similar to items found in Yos Sudarso (Humboldt Bay) Bay. These ceremonial hooks feature several figures, usually in opposite position as is here the case on the top of this item. The figures on the sites however are rendered in a different position: they arenot rendered in full, but half suggesting copulation.

According to Hoogerbrugge these elaborately carved hooks were owned by the Ondofolo, village chiefs, and were attached on branches on special occasions where fruits and presents, gifts with symbolical meaning were hung to attract fecundity, peace and prosperity. This age-old custom, i.e. the world-tree, is found in several areas in island Indonesia.

Photo credits

Van Spengen, Hilversum