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Small elliptical shaped woven face mask surrounded with feathers and attached to large shell with rattan.
Bride Price
Courtesy of the Harn Museum of Art, Photography by Foad Seyed Mohammadi

Bride Price

Maker Sawos , Middle Sepik (New Guinea)
Date20th century
Place of originAsia
MediumShell (turbo marmoratus), rattan, cassowary feathers, pigment
Dimensions16 x 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. (40.6 x 21.6 x 10.8 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineGift of Dr. Samuel Spring
Object numberS85-SPNG-G114
Collections
Visual DescriptionSmall elliptical shaped woven face mask surrounded with feathers and attached to large shell with rattan.
Woven rattan helmet-type mask with attached clay covered rattan disk as face. Large pierced nose. Cowrie shell beard. Small slit mouth and eyes. Surrounded by cassowary feathers.
Initiation Mask
Iatmul
20th century
Finely woven rattan body costume with hanging fiber. Wings and head made from plaited string. Long neck. Design painted on predominately black body. Shell eye. Cassowary feathers extend down sides and ridge of back. Dangling twine from circular disc ears.
Cassowary Dance Costume
Iatmul
20th century
Body masquerade woven(?) horizontally of woven rattan. Pig face with snout from which feathers, twine and fabric dangle. Cowrie shell eyes. Headdress of face. Earrings ? object in nose dangle from ears. Tusks extending from one side of mouth. Rows of cassowary feathers extend length of body and fringe hangs at bottom. Highlighted with earth pigment.
Pig dance costume
Iatmul
20th century
Woven basketry cone shaped from topped with traditional Sepik human head made of clay and painted designs. Large shell eyes, typical nose and protruding tongue. Hair beard. Face encircled in shells, embedded with clay. On basketry torso is the "dual" ancestor's face mocking the larger predominate face. Raffia fringe extends from bottom. Handle on side and back. Wood plug earring. Raffia fringe covers armholes inside. Striped design in red, black and yellow.
Dual ancestral costume
Iatmul
20th century
An ovoid maskette made of wickerwork, with tubular eyes, attached to cut-out snail shell.
Spirit figure (talipun)
Boiken
ca. 1950
Large Dance Mask
Large Dance Mask
New Guinean, Blackwater River, Sepik
20th century
Human face mask with large arched superstructure of rattan, thick, fiber brush on top, with light pigment on side filling swirl motif; face has operculum shell eyes, with hook nose, mouth has lips that are parted and flattened to form perpendicular plane to face. Face is painted with finely lined motifs, varied pigments against light ground.
Mask for Malangan (tatanua)
Papua New Guinea
late 19th - early 20th century
Helmet mask depicting a composite boar and bird, made of wood and rattan, lined with cloth. The face has intricate openwork carving and is painted with fine lines in red, and black pigments over a white ground. A ruff of coconut fibers encircling back of head and fringe on chin. Snout of warthog has a bird with long bill, which is broken and glued together. Eyes of warthog and bird are made of snail shells (opercula). Trade cloth liner is made of two pieces of different floral patterns.
Boar Mask
Papua New Guinea
early-mid 20th century
Multi-length brownish feathers secured to thin bamboo handle with twine. A reddish glue is apparent underneath feathers.
Feather whisk
New Guinean, Sepik River
last half 20th century
Long open ? plaited fiber cap. When worn extends down back and ends in small likeness of lizard or crocodile with mouth. Strands of fiber adorned with cowrie shells and painted with red and white pigment. Small twine loops with evidence of feathers at top.
Bridal Headpiece (ambusap)
Iatmul
20th century
Carved wood figure with various attachments: medicine bundles with feathers and other substances, cowrie strands on neck and head, monkey skull attached to front with cords, shells and seed pods and gourd bound to figure with cord, back covered with burlap; dots of blue and white pigment on figure; figure holds a club in each hand; has conical headdress, strand of red and green beads on back, iron chain with small conical bell attached at end dangling at feet.
Smallpox God
Yoruba Artist
1969
Ruff of feathers secured with twine.
Cassowary Headdress
New Guinean, Middle or Lower Sepik
last half 20th century

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