Martin Voight New Guinea Headdress, Schouten Islands, Oceanic Art
Along the north coast of Papua New Guinea initiated men used to grow their hair long and pull it through conical cane headdresses such as this with the hair protruding from the smaller end in nice round sphere. Old field photos exist featuring such coiffed men and of course one has only to look at the many male ancestral spirit figure carvings from the area with tall conical heads topped with a round orb. This particular hair piece has an early provenance of being collected by Martin Voight, the Postmaster to German New Guinea from 1902-1906. It was sold at Christie’s New York, 20 November 1997, part of lot 154 and acquired by Leo Fortess at the sale. The headdress is finely constructed with interwoven red/orange strips and adorned with red feathers. It stands 9 1/2” (24.1 cm) in height and sells for $1800. Questions?