Antique Tapa Tribal Dance Shield, New Guinea

Tutsi ceremonial dance shield. Rwanda-Burundi Second quarter, 20th century. Wood, natural pigment Provenance: Colonial period collection, Belgium...

mid-20th century Tami Islands Papua new guinea wooden feast bowl Of classic form, each end carved with raised and incised imagery depicting stylized sea cr...

A large decorative and rare hand carved tribal war shield in traditional colors, made in Papua New Guinea in the late 19th century. Functional as beautiful ...

A monumental, rare and important Oceanic Papuan Asmat People tribal carved war shield from the first half of the 20th century, collected from the coast of the headhunting tribe in Papua New Guinea, a Provincial Indonesian island in the mid 20th century. Among the Asmat, war shields are the most powerful symbolic element of a warrior's equipment, and have many layers of meaning. Traditionally, they were functional items used to protect warriors in battle by deflecting an enemy's spears and arrows. The carved and painted images on the surface of the shields were also intended to frighten the enemy and symbolize the power of the ancestors. Ancestral imagery appears on multiple forms of Asmat art...