Possible New Guinea Bowl/Cup For ID
 

Hello everyone, I just picked up this interesting small bowl/cup from ebay and would like to hear everyones opinions on where it might be from, its possible age and what it might have originally been used for. The auction description and photos are below. In this description it is referred to as being a bowl. I have also seen photos of similar items being used as a cup. In those (not shown) photos the person holding it had their thumb hooked under the protrusion at the end and their fingers wrapped around the outside brim while drinking from it. I can easily see it being used as a dipper/cup for drinking, but with the rounded bottom it seems that it would not be very stable when being used as a bowl and would tip over very easily (spilling its contents) unless it was being held the entire time it was in use. My thanks for any help and information that might be offered on this item as it would be greatly appreciated.

"New Guinea Unusual, small bowl with Head/Beak Mask spear/dagger shape,
carved from wood. Dimensions: 6” X 3 3/8” Approx. 1.5” Height Approx.
Head/Beak 1 5/8” long x 1”Widest Approx. Nicely carved."

Best,
Robert

Hello Robert,

it's a spoon, I guess Spepik region made from coconut shell. Maybe Abelam, but not sure.

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Detlef, Thank you very much for your response. As I said, it was listed as a bowl but I had seen photos of these being used to drink from so I just assumed that it was a cup of some sorts. It has arrived now and the color is much darker than shown in the photos that I have posted here. It also shows the kind of wear that you would expect to see from being handled over and over for a long period of time. I would definitely agree that it is most likely made from a coconut shell though it is quite thin now. Do you have any idea of age on this?

Best,
Robert

Hello Robert,

I've handled already quite some of this spoons since a friend of mine has a shop for ethnograhic items from New Guinea and others. This spoons you can find in other forms also in parts of Indonesia and I've had some from Alor in the past. You're correct, this spoons are used for drink but also for eating.
See here: http://www.tribalmania.com/COCSPOONS.htm The spoons in this link are all sold but when this link is against the rules please remove it. Here you can see many more examples: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...ea&FORM=IGRE#a
Difficult to say how old yours may be, when they have been in daily use they will look very soon old. So far I know they are still in use and tribal dealers have bought and still buy them en masse, good business! ;) :D

Regards,
Detlef

Hello Detlef, and again thank you for the photos and information on these spoons. I will put it where it will be quite at home with the other few PNG items I have in my collection. After looking around on different sites I now see that these are readily available and range in price from quite reasonable to ridiculous. As with many other items I have acquired, the only information I received on this was that it was purchased from the estate sale of an older couple that liked to travel.