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Ceremonial bowl, Plet, 19th–early 20th century
Wood, pigment
7.6 x 39.4 x 17.8 cm (3 x 15 1/2 x 7 in.)
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.203

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: "Collected by Cedric Croft, a patrol officer, c. 1933." Catalog #381, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 147.) PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "The complex terminal composed of a human face and a turtle head is unique among published examples. However, innovations are common in the carving tradition of the Tami Islands. Such bowls were used in serving food (usually a taro mash) on ceremonial occassions, for example, to mark the end of a period of mourning after someone has died. However, they were also an item of symbolic wealth and played a role in exchanges concerning the bride price. Three categories can be discerned according to shape: oval, quadrangular, and zoomorphic. Because of the projecting turtle head, this one may be classified as an animal bowl. (See Bodrogi, 1961a: 99-104 for an overview of the available information; see Reichard, 1969: 27-75, pl. xxviii-lxxxvi for a thorough design analysis of Tami bowls). The Tami Islands were historically famous as the center of production of such bowls, which were traded to neighboring areas. They zealously guarded their copyright and trading monopolies. Because of socioeconomic changes, mainly the influence of missionaries, the center of manufacture and trading shifted from the Tami Islands to the Sisassi Islands in the late 1920s, early 1930s, although the high qualities of durability and aesthetic excellence of the original Tami bowls were not maintained (Harding, 1967: 38-41). Since the 1970s these bowls have also been made in west New Britain and, more recently, their production was revived in the Tami Islands (Counts, 1979). See Ter Keurs (1989, 1990) for firsthand accounts and an analysis of the role of such bowls in the Siassi trade network; see van Damme, 1991 for an extensive discussion of the available information from a perspective of pre-contact internal dynamics of the Huon Gulf region." (Catalog #381, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 147.)

Related Keywords
Plet bowl Ceremonial Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised 147 p 2 Volume 2005 Friede John Marcia Jolika Masterpieces Art 381 Catalog 1933 c officer patrol Croft Cedric by Collected people Tami Oceania Province Morobe Guinea New Papua Melanesia Utensil pigment Wood 0726200511460001 A361118 L05.1.203 AOA