Breast Ornament (civa vonovono)circa 1850

On view:

David Geffen Galleries, Polynesia: "Our Sea of Islands"

Circular decorative ornament combining carved ivory or bone with a central domed mother-of-pearl shell inset, featuring a serrated outer edge and a small four-pointed star at center

Title: Breast Ornament (civa vonovono)
Place Made: Republic of the Fiji Islands
Date Made: circa 1850
Medium: Whale ivory, pearl shell, and fiber
Dimensions: Height: 5 in. (12.7 cm); Diameter: 7 in. (17.78 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.2008.66.37
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This civavonovono is composed of whale tooth plates lashed tightly with fiber to fit flush with the attached pearl shell. The ornament’s decorative meaning is not specifically known, but it is a chiefly possession and a highly personal ornament. It probably was used in ceremonial dances and combat. It had attached fiber cords to hang around the neck and tie around the sides and back to keep it in place at the front of the body.
Ornaments such as this example were presented to a chief or other important person as a token of goodwill, loyalty, and reverence, as part of a birth, marriage, or death ceremony, or upon the departure or return from a long journey.
Fiji lies within the well-traveled areas of Polynesian waters, and as whaling and access to whale ivory increased during the eighteenth century, ivory objects like this ornament became more prolific. The complex treatment of the inlay here reflects the introduction of metal tools used in the carving process. This example is fit together with fiber, but as metal became more widely used, metal clasps replaced the traditional fiber. The fiber-lashing technique probably was adopted from neighboring Tongan canoe craftsmen.
Provenance: Collected by Admiral John Elphinstone Erskine (1806–1887), HMS Havannah, in 1850. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; 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.

Breast Ornament (civa vonovono)circa 1850

On view:

David Geffen Galleries, Polynesia: "Our Sea of Islands"

Title: Breast Ornament (civa vonovono)
Place Made: Republic of the Fiji Islands
Date Made: circa 1850
Medium: Whale ivory, pearl shell, and fiber
Dimensions: Height: 5 in. (12.7 cm); Diameter: 7 in. (17.78 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.2008.66.37
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This civavonovono is composed of whale tooth plates lashed tightly with fiber to fit flush with the attached pearl shell. The ornament’s decorative meaning is not specifically known, but it is a chiefly possession and a highly personal ornament. It probably was used in ceremonial dances and combat. It had attached fiber cords to hang around the neck and tie around the sides and back to keep it in place at the front of the body.
Ornaments such as this example were presented to a chief or other important person as a token of goodwill, loyalty, and reverence, as part of a birth, marriage, or death ceremony, or upon the departure or return from a long journey.
Fiji lies within the well-traveled areas of Polynesian waters, and as whaling and access to whale ivory increased during the eighteenth century, ivory objects like this ornament became more prolific. The complex treatment of the inlay here reflects the introduction of metal tools used in the carving process. This example is fit together with fiber, but as metal became more widely used, metal clasps replaced the traditional fiber. The fiber-lashing technique probably was adopted from neighboring Tongan canoe craftsmen.
Provenance: Collected by Admiral John Elphinstone Erskine (1806–1887), HMS Havannah, in 1850. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; 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.