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Dance rattle, Ai-Gaté-Si or Orlan-Ai, C-14 dating: 1640–1820 (95% probability)
Wood, goa-nutshell (Pangium edule) rattles, fiber, pigment
81.3 x 25.4 x 12.7 cm (32.5 x 10 x 5 in.)
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.420

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "The handles of ceremonial rattles from Astrolabe Bay are distinguished by carved animal or human heads (and sometimes even a human figure). Particularly bird heads (e.g., Bodrogi, 1959, fig. 15) have been recorded but the present example is a snake, perhaps even a snake holding a human head in its mouth, with another human head, facing the other way, in back. Miklouho-Maclay (1876: 322-23; also cited in Bodrogi, 1959: 61) provides an early description of the use of these rattles: "By shaking them up and down, the nutshells come into contact and produce a clattering noise that can be modulated by the number of shells in the rattle and by the speed at which it is shaken." Otto Finsch stated that, even in 1890, these rattles were difficult to find and apparently they became even rarer after that date "since none was found by Hagen [1899] at Bogadjim and none are contained in the Biró collection at the Néprajzi Múseum, Budapest" (Bodrogi, 1959: 62). The Übersee Museum Bremen (personal observation) has excellent examples, all very different from each other but all showing te same aggressive quality as this one. See also Bodrogi, 1953: 134; Schmeltz, 1895: 243-34, pl. vxi/2; Fuhrmann, 1999: 102; and Menter, 2003, fig. 66." (Catalog #365, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 143.)

Related Keywords
Orlan or Si Gat* Ai rattle Dance Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised Friede John Marcia Art Jolika speakers language family Mindjim Oceania Province Madang Guinea New Sculpture pigment fiber rattles edule Pangium nutshell goa Wood 0709200406050536 A365333 L05.1.420 AOA