MENTAWAI MEMORIAL CANOE PADDLE SIBERUT ISLAND, INDONESIA carved wood and pigment, the broad paddle blade with central ridge, the long shaft leading to crescent handle, painted white with a black hand at the centre of the blade, raised on a bespoke mount (127cm tall) Provenance: Private collection, London, United Kingdom, formed over the past fifty years Note: This rare paddle was carved to commemorate a Mentawai elder, represented by his hand. Once painted, the paddle could no longer be used as a functional object. A similar example can be seen in Feldman, J., “Arc of the Ancestors: Indonesian Art from the Jerome L. Joss Collection at UCLA”, 1994, p. 48-50.