Southeast Solomon Island Dance Paddle
This is an extremely rare and ancient dance paddle from the Southeast Solomon Islands. The blade is very thin and beautifully carved with the top edge pierced for attachments. The only one similar I could find was in the British Museum collected in the 1890s by Admiral Carruthers, then Engineer-Lieutenant of the H.M.S. Ringdove, a survey ship stationed in Australia from 1890 to 1901(Oc1949,05.29)—see attached screenshot. The present club comes from the estate of an old time Los Angeles collector and is on the market for the first time in over 30 years. It is 36” (91.4 cm) in height, dates to the mid 19th century or before and the price is available upon request.