A Rennell Island shark hook gaung'akao Melanesia wood and woven sennit

A Rennell Island shark hook gaung'akao

Melanesia

wood and woven sennit,

30.5cm high including loop, 21.5cm high without loop.

Provenance

Squadron Leader Bowes-Lyon, Agincourt House, Dartmouth, late 1960's.

cf. see Adrienne L. Kaeppler. Polynesia - The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art, 2010, p.272, pl.227 - "Ritual hooks were used by the priest of the island to invoke the gods before fishing and were considered taboo."