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Chisel handle, Maramo, 19th–early 20th century
Wood
40 x 5.8 cm (15 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.172

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: "Collected by Father Welling, m.s.c., between 1947-52, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Tilburg, The Netherlands." (Catalog #532, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 177.) PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - ""This is the finest Kamoro master carvers' chisel handle I have ever seen," according to Dirk Smidt (personal communication). (See also Kooijman, 1984: 120, figs. 120-122; and Jacobs, 2003: 81, cat. no. 20). The Kamoro name for chisel is also used to denote the master carvers, whom the Kamoro revered. A human figure is carved on the handle. A number of oval-shaped motifs carved in a vertical row on the torso indicate that the figure is female. The motif is a rendering of the maternal navel (mopere), which is a symbol of life, as well as movement, to the Kamoro (Dirk Smidt, personal communication). Similar motifs appear on the elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. The comparatively massive, knob-shaped top end of the figure's headdress enabled the wood-carver to have a firm grip and a "larger impact surface" (Jacobs, 2003: 81, cat. no. 20). A metal strip was once attached at the bottom of the handle, fashioned from "old nails and pieces of old iron,...which were heated over a fire and pounded to give them the required shape" (Kooijman, 1984: 118). Shell tools had already been replaced by such chisels before World War I (ibid., 117). This chisel handle testifies to the ability of thhe Kamoro during the early period of contact to adapt their art to changing circumstances while maintaining high aesthetic stanards and keeping the core symbolic message of their art intact. See next object for a work made by a master carver." (Catalog #532, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 177.)

Related Keywords
Maramo handle Chisel Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised 177 p 2 Volume 2005 Friede John Marcia Jolika Masterpieces Art Guinea New 532 Catalog Netherlands Tilburg Heart Sacred Missionaries 52 1947 between c s m Welling Father by Collected people Kamoro village Amarapya Oceania Papua West Indonesia Utensil Wood 0709200406050630 A361087 L05.1.172 AOA