19th C Papua New Guinea Wood Bride Price Necklace

Oceania, Papua New Guinea, ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. A fascinating bride price necklace or chest adornment from Papua New Guinea featuring a sizable kina shell set with clay onto a carved-wood oval. Boasting natural striations in lustrous hues of golden caramel, butterscotch, and beige, the crescent-shaped kina shell is displayed at the center of the oval below two coins from Papua New Guinea and a column of horizontal vegetal reeds. The area surrounding the shell is painted a vibrant hue of russet. The intriguing example displays a pair of drill holes at the top of each point of the shell tied with a strip of woven vegetal fiber with coins at each end - a Papua New Guinean shilling at one and an Australia ten cent piece at the other - allowing the piece to be worn as a necklace or chest piece. Size: 12.75" W x 14.75" H (32.4 cm x 37.5 cm)

Kina shells are used as currency among tribes of the Southern Highlands and Western Highlands regions of Papua New Guinea. This piece would have been used as a bride price - a price paid to the bride's family by the groom - and later worn as a status ornament.

Provenance: private Tucson, Arizona, USA collection, acquired between 1950 and 1985

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#147594
Condition Report: Missing at least three vegetal reeds. Light scratches to shell and minor cracking to clay in areas. Miniscule fraying to vegetal fiber. Otherwise, intact and excellent with nice remaining pigments.