Superb New Guinea Massim Lime Spatula Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea 19th Century

A Superb New Guinea Massim Lime Spatula, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, dating from the 19th Century

This beautiful old Lime Spatula is of the high quality of aesthetics that Massim Master Carvers could achieve working on this scale. After carving & polishing, the artist would put white lime into the incised designs to highlight them.

This Lime Spatula may have been made by ” The Master of the Concave Back” according to the late Massim expert Dr. Harry Beran. This carver had a unique style & is easily identified by Dr Brean in several of his books on Massim Art.  This Lime Spatula is the largest, most beautiful, and expressive figure that I have owned in 40 years of collecting

The utensils made for chewing betel nut are some of the most beautiful, smaller-scale carvings ever made in New Guinea. Lime Spatulas are usually carved from a dark native hardwood with elaborately carved finials depicting stylised human ancestor figures and or animals.

Lime Spatulas were used for chewing betel nuts by dipping the end of the spatula into powdered lime (crushed & burnt sea shells) & licking it off as you put a Betel Nut from the Acacia Palm to chew together, the lime diffuses the alkaloids in the Betel Nuts.

In the Massim Culture, chewing Betel Nuts is an important daily ritual. Betel Chewers would have a lime gourd & spatula for dipping into the lime, and older men with poor teeth would also have a small mortar and pestle for crushing the nuts into a mush that was easier to eat.

Many of the most beautiful Massim Lime Spatulas were made by Master Carvers for use only by important Chiefly Persons. The motifs are part of the Massim belief system & spirituality.

Provenance: Old Australian Collection & The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art 

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbours.

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