Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, 1960s
Hardwood with lime infill
Length 12 1/4 inches (31.1 cm)
Provenance: Melbourne trade, Australia
Two spatulas are offered, each cut from dense dark hardwood with a long flattened blade tapering to a rounded tip and a shaft rising to a carved finial worked in openwork. The finial of the longer spatula is an upright crested form pierced through and cut with scrolled volutes and bands of small notched teeth, and the shaft below it carries a running scroll and a collar of the same notching, all of it packed with white lime so the pattern reads pale against the black wood. The second spatula is in two pieces, the finial and upper shaft separated from the blade, and its finial carries a comparable openwork loop above notched bands with the lime infill intact.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, 1960s
Hardwood with lime infill
Length 12 1/4 inches (31.1 cm)
Provenance: Melbourne trade, Australia
Two spatulas are offered, each cut from dense dark hardwood with a long flattened blade tapering to a rounded tip and a shaft rising to a carved finial worked in openwork. The finial of the longer spatula is an upright crested form pierced through and cut with scrolled volutes and bands of small notched teeth, and the shaft below it carries a running scroll and a collar of the same notching, all of it packed with white lime so the pattern reads pale against the black wood. The second spatula is in two pieces, the finial and upper shaft separated from the blade, and its finial carries a comparable openwork loop above notched bands with the lime infill intact.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
