Lot n° 221
Estimation :
3000 - 6000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 12 980EUR
Mengen (or Omengen) war shield, Jacquinot Bay, New Britain, - Lot 221
Mengen (or Omengen) war shield, Jacquinot Bay, New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Medium-hard wood with brown patina, pigments, fibers.
(Misses).
Length : 136 cm - Width : 32,5 cm
Mengen shield engraved on both sides with pigment enhanced decorations. Two stylized faces adorn each of the two ends on the external face. Identical graphically, the right side of each one is also tinted with red pigments, the left side with black pigments. If the nose and mouth are absent, the nostrils are represented, with the eyes forming two large pastilles on either side. A motif delimits the periphery of each of these faces, but also each of the two chromatic areas. More abstract, and figured above these two ornaments, on one side two inverted triangles, on the other a hatched band in a black pattern overflowing it. On the other side, a series of motifs which it is tempting to read, in their succession, the representation of a body. The face could then be symbolized by this remarkable single eye, the full pupil surrounded by a series of arcs; the socket dug into the volume, framed by digitized motifs, representations of probable hands? In the center of a black painted band, a large radiating motif, then lower, triangular and schematically digitized, feet.
The quality of the details, the persistence of the pigments and the good state of conservation of this rare Mengen war shield make it a fine example of the type, of which a certain number are preserved in the public collections of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne.
For a related example, see Oceanic Shields, Galerie Conru Primitive, exhibition catalog, Brussels 2006, fig. 21, former collection of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.
Bibliography: Boucliers d'Afrique, d'Asie du Sud-Est et d'Océanie du musée Barbier-Mueller, Editions Adam Biro, Paris, 1998, fig. 90 page 217.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue