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Details
- Other Title
- Presentation axe
- Place where the work was made
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Minj
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Anglimp-South Waghi District
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Jiwaka Province
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Papua New Guinea
- Cultural origin
- Wahgi people
- Dates
- early 20th century
collected 1940 - Media categories
- Ceremonial object , Arms & armour
- Materials used
- grey-green stone, wood handle, carved wood blade, woven split-vine binding
- Dimensions
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63 x 50 x 5.5 cm overall; blade 25.5 x 11.2 x 1.9 cm
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0 - Whole, 48.3 cm (19"), handle length
0 - Whole, 61 cm (24"), across top of axe
0 - Whole, 25.5 cm (10 1/16"), slate blade
- Credit
- Gift of Stan Moriarty 1978
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 311.1978
- Copyright
- © Wahgi people, under the endorsement of PIMA's 'Code of Ethics'
- Share
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About
The Mt Hagen battleaxes are the finest yet seen in New Guinea ... Most of them are made in the villages of Gumbigai and Mangarvigar in the Manginbor area, where the stone for the blades is quarried. Their heads are a blue or grey stone of fine texture, beautifully ground and polished. The blade is well housed in a wooden cavity, set in the same plane as the handle and counterbalanced by a piece of wood … set immediately behind and beautifully carved and decorated with fibre chains and fur … It is carried in the bark belt with the handle between the belt and the body and the head and counterpoise resting on the upper edge of the belt. When ready for action the axe is carried above the shoulder in an alert position with the hand near the blade.
Ernest Chinnery, Government Anthropologist, Mandated Territory of New Guinea, 1934
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
Plumes and pearlshells: art of the New Guinea highlands, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 May 2014–10 Aug 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Tony Tuckson, Aboriginal and Melanesian art, Sydney, 1973, 54. cat.no. H150
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Natalie Wilson (Editor), Plumes and pearlshells: art of the New Guinea highlands, Sydney, 2014, 88 (colour illus.), 160. cat.no. 31
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