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Canoe prow ornament, Gope, 19th century
Wood, red pigment with traces of lime and charcoal
113.5 cm (44 11/16 in.)

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: "E.B. Savage Collection, The Square, Ringwood, UK. (P.70078); Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset." (Catalog #492, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 167.) PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "Douglas Newton reports (1961: 10) "the outrigger canoes on the Fly River's banks are equipped with a sort of splashboard; the side facing inwards is carved with a human face. These boards are called gope, a word which is also the secular name of the bull-roarers. They are sometimes suspended in front of the darimo gables so that they can twist in every direction to ward off illness from whichever quarter it comes." Kiwai canoe boards are thought to be one of the antecedents of the ancestral spirit boards, gope, kwoi, and hohao, of the central and eastern Gulf region. The other antecedent is believed to be the bull-roarer, or kaiaimunu. In the Kerewo region, some large boards are called kaiaimunu (Thomas Schultze-Westrum collection records). For other examples of canoe boards, see Newton, 1961, figs. 63, 64, and 65; Meyer, 1995, fig. 85." (Catalog #492, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 167.)

Related Keywords
Gope ornament prow Canoe 167 2 Volume 2005 Friede John Marcia Jolika Masterpieces Art 492 Catalog Dorset Farnham Museum Rivers Pitt 70078 P UK Ringwood Square Savage B E people Kiwai Oceania Province Western Guinea New Papua Melanesia Object Ritual charcoal lime traces pigment red Wood 0420200717030026 A383349 AOA