Figure of a deity · Tonga · ID: 3039445
Andrew Staley, Nottingham, Great Britain
Description
wale tooth ivory, rest. (right foot tip), minor missing part (mouth), base;
human figure sculpture in Tonga represented deities or ancestors whose uniquely carved images were apparently known only from the Ha’apai group. These female figures in wood or ivory would have been placed as objects of veneration in the god houses. Sometimes they were worn, either as charms or ornaments, by women enyoing the status of a chief.
The figure was inherited to Margheritha Mona Comotto by her Great Aunt, who was an Italian missionary in the Kingdom of Tonga in the early 1900s to the outbreak of World War I., when she returned to Rangoon in Burma, where Margherita and her family lived. She gave the figure to Margherita, because as a child she loved to play with it. Margherita herself had to escape from the approaching japanese troops in march 1942. After a spectacular flight through the Burmese jungle she got to India, where she met John Staley, who was a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force. After the war the family moved to Portsmouth, Great Britain with what little had survived as nearly everything they had in Rangoon had even been destroyed by war or stolen. The figure however has survived two World Wars and remained in the family until today. The old photo shows Margherita Mona Camotto and John Staley on their wedding day in India in 1943.
The object Figure of a deity with the object ID 3039445 was part of the auction 83rd Tribal Art Auction on May 28, 2016. The object with the lot number 99 achieved a sales price of EUR 7,000 with an asking price of EUR 3,000.
You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on Oceanian art.
Notices
This object is subject to CITES. Please note that it can only be sent within the European Union. At the present time export in third countries is prohibited, respectively, export licenses in third countries for objects containing or made of protected materials are only granted under stringent conditions.