Skip to main content
Necklace
Necklace

Necklace

Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Object PlacePapua New Guinea
Medium/TechniqueMelo shell, tortoiseshell, braided fiber
DimensionsOverall: 33 x 16.5 x 2 cm (13 x 6 1/2 x 13/16 in.)
Credit LineGift of Geneviève McMillan in memory of Reba Stewart
Accession number2009.2670
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment
Description
Only recently did collectors develop an interest in personal adornments from Papua New Guinea. Such adornments reflect the variety of materials used by artists of the Sepik River area. Organic materials found locally or exchanged via trade are worked and arranged in dramatic juxtapositions. In Melanesia, men wear kapkap-concave shells with openwork tortoiseshell decoration-as breast ornaments, on the forehead, or, most commonly in the Sepik area, in the hair mounted on a pin. Here the kapkap has been mounted as a necklace.
Provenance1967, acquired in Angoram, Papua New Guinea by Geneviève McMillan (b. 1922 - d. 2008), Cambridge, MA; 2008, to the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation, Cambridge; 2009, gift of the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 17, 2009)
Necklace
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Mouth ornament
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Armband
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Armlet
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Net bag (bilum)
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Group shot: L-SE 1045.1.91, L-SE 1045.1.93
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Headband
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
20th century
Lintel
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
19th–20th century
Headdress (susiu)
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
late 19th century
Puppet head (Temes Nevimbur)
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Bonito Canoe model
Artist unknown, Pacific Islander
20th century, 1950–2000
Carved face
Artist Unidentified, Pacific Islander
19th–20th century