Carved Bar (paepae)circa 1850

Not on view

Carved wooden object covered in dense spiral and scroll motifs, with a stylized creature head featuring a large inlaid shell eye, viewed from slightly above

Title: Carved Bar (paepae)
Culture: Maori, Rukupo school of carvers
Place Made: New Zealand (Aotearoa), Gisborne Region
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)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.2008.66.38
Classification: Sculpture
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.
Provenance: Morris J. Pinto (1925–2009), Paris, Geneva, and New York. Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Carved Bar (paepae)circa 1850

Not on view

Title: Carved Bar (paepae)
Culture: Maori, Rukupo school of carvers
Place Made: New Zealand (Aotearoa), Gisborne Region
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)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.2008.66.38
Classification: Sculpture
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.
Provenance: Morris J. Pinto (1925–2009), Paris, Geneva, and New York. Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.