Oceania, Melanesia, Solomon Islands, ca. late 19th to mid-20th century CE. This is a fine gathering of 3 spear shafts, each hand crafted from bamboo, wood, rattan, and barbed tips made from fish bones. The first is long and slender bamboo shaft with etched linear motifs upon the grip that are highlighted with black soot pigments. The blade tip is the sharpened piece of palmwood, cut and shaped with fine encircling ridges along the length, then bound tightly to the bamboo with a tightly woven rattan fiber. The other two spears are similarly constructed with two pieces of lightweight bamboo with a durable palmwood tip - the midsized spear has a series of barbs carved into the blade just before the pyramidal tip, and the other spear has barbs made of fish bones lashed to the sides with rattan. All three are beautifully preserved and have nice patina throughout. Size of largest: 0.5" W x 53.25" H (1.3 cm x 135.3 cm); 55.5" H (141 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private Hawaii, USA collection, 1995-2010; ex-John DuPont collection

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.

Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.

#168514

Missing several bone barbs on one spear, but the rest of the shaft is intact and very good. The other 2 spears are also intact and excellent. Nice patina to the wood.