Ritual dance club "napa" · Solomon Islands - Santa Cruz Islands, Ndende · ID: 3051698
German Private Collection, Munich
Description
wood, earth pigments, grass fibres, nuts,
With a typical canoe-shaped corpus, traditional painting and abstract faces.
These clubs are traditionally attributed to Ndende island but are in fact found across the Santa Cruz island group in eastern Solomon Islands.
According to Davenport (1968), the inhabitants of Utupua Island see themselves as the original owners and rightful bearers of these clubs, which were once given to one of their ancestors by “Bamuda”, a supernatural culture hero.
The object Ritual dance club “napa” with the object ID 3051698 was part of the auction Auction 104 on April 12, 2025. The object with the lot number 224 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,000 with an asking price of EUR 800.
Here you will find more objects and interesting facts about Oceanian art.
Comparing literature
Conru, Kevin, Solomon Islands Art, Milan 2008, p.127, ill. 74