A Superb Old New Guinea War Shield Motu People Central Province Papua New Guinea 19th C

A Superb Old New Guinea War Shield Motu People from Central Province Papua New Guinea Dating from the 19th Century 

The elegant figure-eight shape of Motu Shields is a rarity out of the corpus of New Guinea Shields that tend to either be oval or rectangular. This has the finest balance where the upper half-circle is slightly larger than the bottom one. The original rattan binding is intact including the woven designs.  Such shields were used by the Motu, Koita, and Koiari peoples in the region around the capital of Port Moresby & Central Province.  Most of these Shields were collected in the 19th Century as after that period people near the Colonial Capital Port Moresby were quickly won over to Christianity,  these are rare as they stopped making them in the late 19th Century

New Guinea Shields were important objects that venerated their ancestors, each shield had a personal name and when invoked during warfare the enemy was said to be frightened or stunned and easy to kill.

Provenance: 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 neighbors.

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