Vanuatu High Grade Food Pounder

A very fine and rare food pestle used to crush taro and banana to make a vegetarian dish called laplap or nâlot. The cobble stone motif on the finial and the forked end represent the combined decoration found at the top of the main houseposts of a high grade individuals abode. Only a man of exceptionally high grade in the Suque or secret society structure could afford to own and use a pestle of this quality with these motifs. Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu, Melanesia. Hardwood with a superb patina of age and use. 65 x 6 ø cm. 18th/19th century.
 

Provenance Ex. Coll. : RIK & Sydney Hecker, Los Altos Hilles, USA.

Literature: Pub. : Meyer, Anthony JP: OCEANIC ART / OZEANISCHE KUNST / OCEANIC ART. Könemann Verlag, Köln. 1995, p. 414, fig. 469.