Dance Stick - Lot 35

Dance Stick Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands, Para-Polynesia Late 19th - early 20th century Wood (alstonia) with worn patina, pigment and indigenous fibers L. 99 cm Minor gaps and a large crack, old restoration to beak Dance staff, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands, Para-Polynesia L. 39 in Provenance: - Former private Scottish collection. Bibliography: - Speiser, Felix von& Foy,W. von, Völkerkundliches von den Santa-Cruz-Inseln in Ethonlogica, Verlag Hiersemann, Leipzig, 1916 A rare figurative dance stick depicting a seabird's head. The body of the stick is covered with stylized representations of fish and painted birds. Most dance sticks represent the pirogue of the "original voyage" of settlement in the Pacific, but on rare occasions, sticks are carved either as birds or fish - notably sharks.