Napa dance wand
Nendo people, Temotu Province, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands
Wood, ochre, black ochre
Early 20th century
36 by 3 inches (91.5 by 7.5 cm)
Ex pivate collection, CA, ex. David Bromwell collection, Bolinas, CA

An unusually large napa dance wand in the form of a highly stylized canoe, tapering to a point at one end. Two raised anscestor heads are incorporated into the geometric linear patterns in black and red. The handle has a rectangular suspension lug, typical of earlier examples, and there are three longitudinal cracks, the result of the multiple strikes that occur during the napa dance.

cf. Hurst, N., Power and Prestige: The Arts of Island Melanesia and the Polynesian Outliers, Hurst Gallery, 1996.
#2534

$3500