A Chuuk (Truk) Coral Food Pounder

Provenance Ex unidentified German collection inv. N° M : 201.

Literature: Ref.: Rosenthal, David: LES PILONS DES ILES DU PACIFIC in TRIBAL ARTS, LE MONDE DE L'ART TRIBAL. N° 11, Année III, Automne-Hiver 1996. Treide, Barbara: IN DEN WEITEN DES PAZIFIK MIKRONESIEN. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1997. See an identical example in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra N° NGA 2007.432
 

An extremely fine food pounder or phou powerfully carved of a single piece of massive coral rock. The flattened top of the pounder is decorated with four large, raised, equally spaced nipples. The extremely weathered patina is from exposure to wind swept sand. These heir-loom pounders were often buried with their female owners and have surfaced, over time through the erosion of the tombs at the seaward gravesite of the atoll. Chuuk Island (formerly known as Truk), Caroline Islands, Micronesia. Coral rock with a weathered patina. 18th/19thcentury. 17 x 12.5 Ø cm.