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Rare Geelvink Bay Drum

Cenderawasih (Geelvink) Bay, West Papua, Indonesia, d. early 20th c.

Carved wood

15½” h x 9” w (39.37 x 22.86 cm)

SOLD

 
 

According to Smidt (2006), drums formed an important link between the living and the ancestors during times of feasting and other ceremonial occasions: “The ancestral voices were communicated through the sound of drums when these were played by men during feasts and ceremonies, often in accompaniment of dance, for example, in honour of a first-born son of a chief or to celebrate a successful turtle catch.”

REFERENCES

Smidt, Dirk. “Cat. 164.” In Shadows of New Guinea: Art from the Great Island of Oceania

Oceania in the Barbier-Mueller Collections, edited by Philippe Peltier, Floriane

Morin, and Joshua A. Bell, 440. Paris: Somogy, 2006.

 
 
 
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SOLD