CHAMBRI MALE ANCESTOR FIGURE FROM A SACRED FLUTE, CHAMBRI LAKE, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

contains pāua (Haliotis iris) shell and human (Homo sapiens) hair.

Robert Emile Bouchard, Montreuil
Marcia and John Friede, New York, acquired from the above in the late 1980s

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Francisco, October 15, 2005 - February 14, 2010

Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Christian Kaufmann, and Douglas Newton, L'art océanien, Paris, 1993, pp. 479 and 511, fig. 597
John A. Friede et al. (ed.), New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, San Francisco, 2005, pp. 287 (vol. 1) and 123 (vol. 2), cat. 257

Very good conditon overall for an object of this type and age. Hairline crack between shoulder blades of figure. Chipping around holes in ears and around feet. Minor nicks and scratches, wear and tear throughout consistent with age and use. Nicks and scratches to shell inlay. Fine layered blackened patina with encrustation. Two holes drilled in bottom for mounting. Hair and fiber attachments fragile.
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This figure is of the same type and function as the famous wusear figures of the Biwat (Mundugumor) people from the shores of the middle Yuat River, a side-arm of the Lower Sepik River, one of the most iconic genres of Melaneasian art.  The male spirit figures were placed on top of sacred bamboo flutes, with the stick-shaped bottom end inserted vertically.   While the wusear were often called "flute stoppers" by western scholars, this expression is misleading insofar as it reduces these effigies to a decorative function.  Wusear were in fact effigies who "spoke" through the flute.  It is therefore more appropriate to interperet the flute as part of the wusear than vice versa.  The Chambri figure from the Friede Collection is the only one known of its type.

According to Friede (2005: 123, text to cat. 257), the present figure was dated to 1660-1890 AD (95.4% probability) using radiocarbon dating.  He notes:  "This figure relates to an unpatinated [and metal carved figure] in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, collected by Margaret Mead in Chambri in the 1930s, to the [figurative handles of two metal carved] water drums in the Papua New Guinea National Museum, Port Moresby (1974: fig. 23-4) and to the [stone carved Chambri] mask [from the JOLIKA Collection published in Friede 2005: 123, cat. no.] 256."

And he continues (personal communication, March 27, 2011):  "The Chambri flute figure from the JOLIKA Collection was carved with stone tools during the period before the Iatmul invasion put an end to an independent Chambri culture.  An implied date for the Chambri figure could be early nineteenth century, or before."