Adventurer, Academic, Industrialist: Louis Pierre Ledoux 1936 New Guinea Expedition
In early 1936, on recommendation by American anthropologist Margaret Mead, Louis Pierre Ledoux, recent Harvard University graduate, headed to the lower eastern Sepik River of Papua New Guinea to study the Murik people.
The results of his self-funded expedition is an extraordinary collection of hundreds of artifacts, photographs, manuscripts, diaries, and letters left untouched for 85 years.
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LOT 106:
Lime Container, Sepik River
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Start price:
$
7,000
Estimated price :
$15,000 - $20,000
Buyer's Premium: 28%
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sales tax: 6.625%
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Lime Container, Sepik River
Lime Container or Stopper, carved in wood, with rattan and cassowary feather elements. Marked "36-105-70 / 456" by Ledoux. Cowry shell eyes, nose elongated to geometric design that flows into a stylized bird.
According to anthropologist Raymond Firth (1936), lime stoppers "... are made by the men who initiate novices into male secrets ...". In his book (see Similar Items below), he describes a very similar lime stopper "the carving here is of mwah, a totemic clan ancestor, the nose of which is prolonged into a snake. The eyes are small cowrie shells, the colors white, black, blue (Reckitt's) and a touch of red."
Locale: Lower Sepik River
Country: Papua New Guinea
Date: 1936 or earlier
Material: Bamboo, Wood, Rattan, Cassowary Feather
Dimensions: L 29"/ 74 cm x W 3"/ 7.5cm
Technique: Carved
Provenance: Louis Pierre Ledoux Collection
Similar items:
LOT 23, BINOCHE ET GIQUELLO, PARIS - 6 NOV. 2015
Art de Nouvelle-Guinée : Collection d'un amateur
https://www.artkhade.com/en/object/776djesK
Cambridge University Museum No. 35.17C, attributed to the [Gregory] Bateson Collection.
1936 Firth, Raymond. Art & Life in New Guinea. New York: The Studio Publications Inc., page 60-61.
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