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Description: | Canoe House Ornament, Solomon Islands, Central Melanesia.
Large wooden carvings of bonito were important objects in the central Solomon Islands, where this piece originated. They were found in two main places: firstly, they were carved as reliquaries – that is, containers for the skulls of revered male ancestors. Great men were believed to share some of the characteristics of the bonito, being aggressive, successful and swift predators. In carvings used for this purpose, a small cavity is carved into the fish sculpture, and the skull is inserted some months after death.
In examples of this kind, however, large wooden bonito carvings were set up over the ridges of canoe houses. These long, low buildings were built to protect the finely carved Solomon Islands boats from the tropical rain and punishing sunlight.
In one sense, the bonito is a delicious and nutritious food animal highly valued by most Pacific peoples. In another sense, it makes an excellent symbol for the qualities admired in a Solomon Islands warrior.
Wood, shell, pigment. Late 19th Century. Formerly in the private collection of James Edge Partington.
Solid wooden model of Bonito caved from a single piece of Casuarina wood and formerly fitted with tenoned fins. The post to which the fish was formerly attached is absent although the two rectangular mortices are still evident on the fish’s belly. The fish has inlaid eyes formed from the circular disc at the base of a conus shell, and several triangular toothed tiles of chambered nautilus encircle the fish’s belly and run down its spine. The fish is also painted entirely black with over painting in white and red. Near the fish’s tail there is a label which reads 'Solomon Islands ornament from the beam of a canoe house, CV.... of HMS Curacoa frontisp [sic] fig PL 2010.6...3 NRS 24.' On the fish’s belly there is an oval label which reads 'J.E.P 23 A'.
caption: General view of object no. 13.62.
caption: Detail view of object no. 13.62. | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | canoe house ornaments chambered nautilus shell Family and Home pigment Casuarina wood | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-46880 | Go to resource |
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