Lae-Womba headdress, Markham valley, Morobe province, Papua - Lot 90

Lot n° 90
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Estimation :
1200 - 1500 EUR
Lae-Womba headdress, Markham valley, Morobe province, Papua - Lot 90
Lae-Womba headdress, Markham valley, Morobe province, Papua New Guinea Tapa, vegetable fibers and pigments H. 24 cm - W. 23 cm - D. 13.5 cm Provenance : Jolika, Marcia & John Friede Collection, Rye, USA Bibliography : Shoffel Serge, Superhuman. Coiffe et parures de Nouvelle-Guinée, cat. exp. (Parcours des Mondes, September 12-17, 2017, Paris / BRAFA, January 27-February 4, 2018, Brussels). This rare bonnet-shaped headdress, made from tapa cloth, features a beautiful regular pattern of concentric friezes. Behind their apparent ornamental simplicity, the geometric motifs - triangles, arrowheads, crosshatching, enhanced with brown and red pigments - had a much more important function: to signify and represent the number of opponents killed in battle by the warrior who owned the headdress.
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