Lot 1
A FINE SANTA CRUZ BREASTPLATE ORNAMENT, KAP KAP
SOLOMON ISLANDS
African & Oceanic Art and Antiquities
Auction: 27 November 2018 at 11:00 GMT
Description
tridacna clam and turtle shell with coconut fibers, the disc-shaped ornament overlain with a filigree of turtle shell representing a frigate bird
Dimensions
15cm diameter
Footnote
Provenance:
Charles Coleridge Harper (1866-1943), acquired 1885 whilst part of the Melanesian Mission expedition of the same year. Thence by descent.
Harper was an Anglican priest and grandson of Henry John Chitty Harper (1804-1893), the first Archbishop of Christchurch, New Zealand.
As an associate of the Melanesian Mission, in March 1885 Harper undertook a journey of many months on the 125-ton barque-rigged schooner Southern Cross with Rev Arthur Brittan to various islands across the south Pacific. Surviving diaries are notable for the following entries:
"18th March 1885 went town with mother to make final arrangements for departing (?) tomorrow for Melanesia".
In later 1885, upon arriving at Santa Cruz where the present example was acquired:
"the men are all elaborately adorned; they wear breastplates of shell, and armlets of the same material...".