Ladle, Raivavae, Austral Islands

Like the preceding lots, the present large ladle-form ceremonial instrument bears the distinctive and ornate continuous relief carving of Austral Island tradition, in a pattern sometimes referred to as "shark-tooth" design, both for the repeated pointed triangles and for the tool that was likely first used to incise these patterns. The pommel features a wide ring of projecting abstract faces, each surmounted by two projecting cylinders that resemble eyes but may also refer to plaited headdress elements. These emerge from abstract bodies which suggest the motion of dance.

While the more numerous paddles refer to a function for which they were not likely used, it is possible that the ceremonial ladles were in fact used to dispense food in an important ceremonial context. Phelps notes that an example of such a ladle in The British Museum (inv. no. Oc.5502), collected by a member of the London Missionary Society, "has the accompanying legend: 'ladle for serving out of the Poi Haari or coconut pudding to the royal party in the king's house.’” (Phelps, Art and Artifacts of the Pacific, Africa, and the Americas: The James Hooper Collection, London, 1976, p. 144).

The precise meaning of the symbols in sacred Austral Island objects is not well understood, but Henry Usher Hall remarked that Austral Islanders "[...] had at their disposal, in the best period of their art, no more efficient tools than they could fashion of stone and shell and the teeth of the [shark] [...] If we cannot read the tale, we can at least admire the piety and skill of the patient recorder.” (Hall, "Woodcarvings of the Austral Islands", The Museum Journal, Vol. XII, No. 3, 1921, p. 199).