Admiralty Carvers Adze Handle

Admiralty Carvers Adze Handle

A small master-carver adze-handle, or dellei. The figure carved on the heel is a male ancestral representation wearing a coif shaped like a European hat. The handle which is slotted for a thin stone blade is incised with zig-zag decor representing a crocodile maw and the butt is decorated with a three-dimensional crocodile. Pak Island (?), Admiralty Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, PNG, Melanesia. Wood with lime and ocher. 43,7 cm. 19th/20th century.

Provenance Acquired from Herma Visser.

Literature: Illustrated : Art of the Pacific Islands & Eskimo Art - TEFAF 2012, Galerie Meyer, N° 24.