40432 Korwar Ancestor figure
Cenderawasih Bay, western New Guinea
Wood
19th to early 20th century
Ex Cornelis van Dijk collection, Sumatra,
Dutch East Indies, acquired before 1900
28 cm /11 in
This sculpture represents early korwar style and features a shield supported by an ancestor with hands turned backward. The artist has rendered the curvilinear patterns that decorate the surface of traditional korwar shields in what is clearly a stylized manner—a shield with openwork structure would hardly be very useful. By the start of the 20th century, this korwar was in the collection of a Dutch gentleman, Cornelis van Dijk, born in Bencoolen, western Sumatra, in 1878, and was reported to have been acquired in the 19th century.
SOLD
