Suspension hook ·  Papua New Guinea - Sepik · ID: 3035699

Description

wood, matt dark brown patina, flat corpus, carved with a crocodile in bas-relief to the front and to the back, sickle-shaped hook with ornamental decor, two drilled holes for suspension, slightly dam., minor missing parts (tip of the snout), cracks;
while utilitarian hooks were only rarely carved, those used in the Men’s House were elaborately sculpted as representations of important ancestors and mythological beings.