- Title
- Carved Bar (paepae)
- Culture
- Maori, Rukupo school of carvers
- Date Made
- circa 1850
- Medium
- Wood and Haliotis shell
- Dimensions
- 6 x 11 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (15.24 x 29.21 x 11.43 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2008.66.38
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Pacific
- Curatorial Notes
Gallery Label
Very little is known about the exact use of this carved bar or the meaning of its motifs. It may have been used as a bird perch or snare, fishing rod, or an element at the end of a latrine seat. The bar is covered in intricate curvilinear designs and features a humanlike face with facial tattoo carvings and inlaid eyes. There are slots carved for the possible attachment of other objects. If the bar was used as a perch-style snare, decoys would have been attached at these slots. Snares were placed in a tree to attract birds, while the trapper waited, eventually pulling a cord that would trap a bird on the bar.
- Selected Bibliography
- Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.
