Ecuadorian Carved Skull Shaped Whistle

This fantastic and well-proportioned Mexican primitive figure depicts a man seated, covering his mouth with detailed, patterned clothing. The sculptu...

This zoomorphic vessel in the shape of a llama with an elongated globular body is from the Chancay civilisation, dated between 1000 and 1400 AD. Th...

This beautiful and highly decorative pair of Costa Rican terracotta bowls are ovoid in shape and come from the Talamancan Mountains region. They are decorated stylized human faces in...

This well-proportioned to scale and detailed cast iron model of an English starting cannon features movable parts including the wheels and cannon barrel. It includes excellent detail...

Pre Columbian Sican Lambayeque Stirrup whistle Vessel A most interesting stirrup whistle vessel of a man seated on top of a raft of storage vessel, ...

An interesting and rather unusual primitive Pre-Columbian style Native South or Central American (Mesoamerican) primitive bird sculpture/ instrument. We believe this piece is a hand...

This mask type of the Ibo-Izzi, a subgroup of the Ibo, is actually a dance crest. The elephant mask 'ogbodo enyi' is worn horizontally on top of the head...

Papua New Guinea, 18th-19th century L. 22.5 x W. 18 cm (approx.) Provenance: Collected by Schulze-Westrum Collection Rinck Hollnberger, Munich (purchased in the 1980s or 1990s) For a comparable skull see the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The heads of humans and of animals such as crocodiles and pigs formerly played integral roles in the ceremonial life of Papuan Gulf peoples, who considered the heads to be vessels of life-giving supernatural power. Within men’s ceremonial houses, human skulls were displayed, together with sacred images such as spirit boards or gope, by the members of each clan in a specially constructed clan shrine. However, not all heads required the death of an enemy. In some areas, heads made from wood or other materials appear to have had powers equal to actual ones. In contrast to skulls, the facial features of wood heads were sometimes depicted as they appeared in life. This example comes from the Wapo Creek area, where wood heads appear to have been used interchangeably with actual skulls. When headhunting was abolished by Australian colonial...