Description:

A Fine Set of Three Old Pig Bone Belts and Two Old Penis Gourds that Were Worn together, Waris Area, NW West Papua (Irian Jaya), Indonesia, 19th Century,
this set of three Pig Bone Belts and a Penis Sheath Gourd are from the Waris District of West Papua Irian Jaya Indonesia. These were once worn daily by the people in this area of West Papua, now these ornaments were only kept as family heirlooms and worn only for the occasional traditional ceremony. When a line of men wearing these ornaments and flexed their hips the gourd would tip up and hit the bone belts making a nice percussion noise, tok tok tok. 

These guys from Waris were kind enough to show me how they were worn.  All types of body ornaments were considered as a type of traditional wealth, you can see on this set that the both belts and gourd have deep old patina from handling and use.

Provenance:
Todd Barlin Field Collected & photographed (See Field photo of Men Wearing these).
& The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

  • Dimensions: L 41 cm [Belts], 14-16 cm [Gourds]

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Shipping

All lots must be paid for and collected by 4pm AEST Monday 8 November. Unfortunately we cannot arrange shipping from this location, however we can arrange the goods to be removed to our rooms at the buyers expense.

8 August 2022 18:00 AEST
Stanmore, Australia

Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers

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A$2,000 A$4,999 A$200
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