New Georgia Island, Western Province, Solomon Islands
Mid-19th century
Wood
Length: 9.6 in (24.5 cm); Height: 4.25 in (10.8 cm)
Provenance: Collection of Sir John Everett Millais, London (1829–1896); Speak Bequest, UK; William Ohly (1883–1955), Berkeley Galleries, London, and Abbey Museum, Hertfordshire, UK, and thence by descent
Headrests from the New Georgia region of the Western Solomon Islands are among the most elaborately carved functional objects produced in the Pacific, serving to protect a sleeper's elaborate hairstyle while carrying the presence of ancestral figures. This example is carved with a pair of opposing ancestral heads at each end, supporting an arched pillow surface above two sets of frieze panels depicting traditional regional motifs including frigate birds in flight. On the underside of the pillow an old iron ink inscription reads "New Caledonia * Speak Bequest" with collection number 1932–468, placing the object within a documented nineteenth-century British collection.
The provenance traces to Sir John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter, and passed subsequently through the Speak Bequest before entering the holdings of William Ohly, the Berkeley Galleries founder whose London and Hertfordshire spaces were among the first in Britain to exhibit African and Oceanic objects alongside contemporary art. Ohly's collection was assembled with the eye of a practicing sculptor and printmaker, and objects that passed through his hands carry the weight of that discernment. The piece descends from his estate, its collection history spanning from mid-Victorian London through the mid-twentieth century art world.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
New Georgia Island, Western Province, Solomon Islands
Mid-19th century
Wood
Length: 9.6 in (24.5 cm); Height: 4.25 in (10.8 cm)
Provenance: Collection of Sir John Everett Millais, London (1829–1896); Speak Bequest, UK; William Ohly (1883–1955), Berkeley Galleries, London, and Abbey Museum, Hertfordshire, UK, and thence by descent
Headrests from the New Georgia region of the Western Solomon Islands are among the most elaborately carved functional objects produced in the Pacific, serving to protect a sleeper's elaborate hairstyle while carrying the presence of ancestral figures. This example is carved with a pair of opposing ancestral heads at each end, supporting an arched pillow surface above two sets of frieze panels depicting traditional regional motifs including frigate birds in flight. On the underside of the pillow an old iron ink inscription reads "New Caledonia * Speak Bequest" with collection number 1932–468, placing the object within a documented nineteenth-century British collection.
The provenance traces to Sir John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite painter, and passed subsequently through the Speak Bequest before entering the holdings of William Ohly, the Berkeley Galleries founder whose London and Hertfordshire spaces were among the first in Britain to exhibit African and Oceanic objects alongside contemporary art. Ohly's collection was assembled with the eye of a practicing sculptor and printmaker, and objects that passed through his hands carry the weight of that discernment. The piece descends from his estate, its collection history spanning from mid-Victorian London through the mid-twentieth century art world.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
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