War club ·  Papua New Guinea - Massim, Trobriand Islands · ID: 3033602

Description

heavy wood, middle brown patina, habile handle, flat corpus, getting broader to the top, elaborately decorated with accurate incised ornaments, accentuated with white pigment, slightly dam., cracks;
at the far eastern point of New Guinea lies Milne Bay and the islands of the Massim Area, often incorrectly referred to as the “Trobriands”. The Massims designs are often based on stylized birds heads, which are carved in an interlocking manner to form a type of “Greek” scrolling.

Comparing literature

Meyer, Anthony J.P., Ozeanische Kunst, Vol. I, Köln 1995, p. 149, ill. 145