Australia, Torres Strait, Cape York Peninsula
Early to Mid-19th century
Coconut
Length: 4.85 inches (12.3 cm)
Provenance: John and Marcia Friede Collection, Rye, New York; Jean-Edouard Carlier, Paris
Containers of this type were produced in the Torres Strait to store and transport magical substances used in hunting sea turtles and dugong — materials that could include specific plants, burned bones, dugong grass, and fatty compounds believed to attract marine animals by scent. Tiny ear bones from dugongs and turtles were also placed within such containers as communicative elements, understood to facilitate a connection between the hunter and his prey. The object's function placed it among the most purposeful and closely held items in a Torres Strait hunter's material repertoire.
The surface of this coconut is engraved with a naturalistic program that includes a fish, turtle, crustaceans, starfish, and a single frog, rendered in fine incised line against the dark polished ground. At the base, the coconut's three natural carpel structures have been worked into a schematic ancestral face with pierced eyes, nostrils, and a mouth hollowed through to the interior — integrating the container's physical structure into its iconographic program. The inner upper rim shows wear consistent with a wooden stopper, and three suspension holes are pierced through the upper body, indicating the container was carried on the person.
The Friede Collection is among the most carefully assembled holdings of Torres Strait and Melanesian material in private hands, and the subsequent Paris provenance through Jean-Edouard Carlier adds a further layer of documented collecting history. Torres Strait coconut containers of this type with engraved figural decoration and intact facial carving at the base are among the most conceptually developed objects from the region and are held in major institutional collections worldwide.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Australia, Torres Strait, Cape York Peninsula
Early to Mid-19th century
Coconut
Length: 4.85 inches (12.3 cm)
Provenance: John and Marcia Friede Collection, Rye, New York; Jean-Edouard Carlier, Paris
Containers of this type were produced in the Torres Strait to store and transport magical substances used in hunting sea turtles and dugong — materials that could include specific plants, burned bones, dugong grass, and fatty compounds believed to attract marine animals by scent. Tiny ear bones from dugongs and turtles were also placed within such containers as communicative elements, understood to facilitate a connection between the hunter and his prey. The object's function placed it among the most purposeful and closely held items in a Torres Strait hunter's material repertoire.
The surface of this coconut is engraved with a naturalistic program that includes a fish, turtle, crustaceans, starfish, and a single frog, rendered in fine incised line against the dark polished ground. At the base, the coconut's three natural carpel structures have been worked into a schematic ancestral face with pierced eyes, nostrils, and a mouth hollowed through to the interior — integrating the container's physical structure into its iconographic program. The inner upper rim shows wear consistent with a wooden stopper, and three suspension holes are pierced through the upper body, indicating the container was carried on the person.
The Friede Collection is among the most carefully assembled holdings of Torres Strait and Melanesian material in private hands, and the subsequent Paris provenance through Jean-Edouard Carlier adds a further layer of documented collecting history. Torres Strait coconut containers of this type with engraved figural decoration and intact facial carving at the base are among the most conceptually developed objects from the region and are held in major institutional collections worldwide.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
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