Sepik River Crocodile Neckrest-Seymour Lazar Collection-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
What I strive to do for my clients is find those objects of Oceanic art that set themselves apart from all the others. Because of the power of the internet, we live in a world where good, old, authentic South Pacific objects can be readily found. So, amongst those you must be selective, find pieces that are special in their aesthetic quality, in their age, unquestionable authenticity, in their provenance and then find those details that clearly set that object apart from others of its type. What drew me to this old classic Middle Sepik River crocodile neckrest was its large size—which in this piece conveyed a sense of importance. Then you had the obvious age and the well composed head with defined teeth—but what really got me was the underside of the head and how it was carved out to create the openwork gaps to delineate the individual teeth. This might seem a minor detail but after having thousands of Sepik objects in my hands this feature just confirmed the neckrest coming from a very early era. There is an unknown old collection number, N 190, painted in white under the neck support. Obviously, the bamboo legs that would have been bent around either side of that long oval support are long gone. The piece comes from the Seymour Lazar Collection, dates to the late 19th/early 20th century, is 23 5/8” (60 cm) in length and sells for $5800.