gable ornament

General view of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.3.62/1
General view of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.3.62/1

Decorative architectural panel of mesbark, which was formerly attached either to the gable on the outside of a men’s house or attached to the roof on the inside. The bark sheet has been peeled from half the circumference of a tree and flattened out as best as possible. It has then been painted in black, and over-painted with curvilinear motifs in white and red paint. The general structure of these motifs is a column of four lenticular forms with four spiralling curls radiating from each. At both the broad and narrow ends, this scheme is terminated by a curving mouth and eyes. The panel represents totemic protectors of the men’s house.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
12.3.62/1
PLACE
CULTURE
Kwoma
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 1400 mm x 500 mm x 60 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
bark; pigment
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
In storage
SHAREABLE LINK

Continue exploring anthropology

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk