A fine Urama area spirit board (Gope); Gulf province Papua New Guinea. (C. 20th Century). The board of classical style for the region, with central stylized face surrounded by spiral motifs above and below stacked chevrons and zigzags in alternating patterns as is typical of the type. A large and imposing piece.Acquired by Marc Seidler from George Craig, C. 1980.Spirit boards of the Papuan Gulf were traditionally made in the Central and Eastern areas. They were routinely found in the Mens houses of the Kerewa, the peoples of the Era River and Wapo Creek, Purari delta areas and from the Urama river as far east as the Elema people.The boards were believed to be the abode of an Imunu, or spirit entity that is represented on the front, though the connection of the image to the spirit is not really a clear one-to-one depiction and the iconography is far more complex in nature.In each locale the ethnic name was different (Titi Ebiha) among the Kerewa, Gope among the peoples of the Era and Wapo areas. The Purari used both the terms Gope and Kwoi depending on their location while the Elema region called them Hohao. Stylistically the imagery also varied greatly, with the Kerewa often depicting entire figures while the neighboring peoples of the Era, Wapo and Purari reducing the forms to abstracted shapes.Many of the boards were cut from old war canoes, though in the Kerewa region many were simply made of flatter timber cut for the purpose. Examples of this type are often erroneously considered to be much later in manufacture than examples from other regions (largely due to a continuation of this style in Tovei village in the 1970s) however, old examples of the style do indeed exist and were the prototypes for the later market pieces, indeed nearly identical examples are illustrated in Wirz, and were collected before the 1930s. Acquired by Marc Seidler from George Craig, C. 1980, Field collected by Craig prior to 1966. This Board measures 62.5 inches tall.

Good, well handled