Admiralty Islands Ladle with Fishes

A very fine ceremonial food ladle decorated with two large fish carved free-standing from a cross-bar. Ornate ladles were used by men of importance and quite possibly the decoration of the handle is linked to the status of the man in the hierarchy of initiated men the tribe or in a Secret Society. Most ladles have geometric handles – figurative or zoomorphic examples are rare.


Admiralty Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, P.N.G., Melanesia. Coconut shell, wood (alstonia), pigments, and puttynut (Parinarium). 33 x 12,2 cm. 19th century.

Provenance Ex coll. : Steinmann, a German medical doctor who served in German New-Guinea between 1880 & 1890.

Literature: Published : "NUTS...!" The Coconut in Oceania. Galerie Meyer, Paris, 2018, pp. 9/10

Ref.:
Neverman, Dr. Hans. ADMIRALITATS-INSELN, ERGEBNISSE DER SUDSEE-EXPEDITION 1908-1910.  Hamburg, Friederichsen, de Gruyter & Co. 1934.

Ohnemus, Sylvia: AN ETHNOLOGY OF THE ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, The Alfred Bühler Collection, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Crawford House Publishing, Bathurst, 1998.