breast ornaments

Breast ornament made of tusk, seeds, wood and hair constructed on a base of wood which takes a scalloped holly leaf form and is framed around the edge with six halved boars tusks. These have been pierced at the end which suggests they may have been recycled from a previous ornament. A band of abrus precatorius seeds are inset in to resin in a horizontal band that splits in two throughout the central section. Behind the board danglers of halved coix lacyrma seeds and red feathers hang down against a coarse bark cloth backing. The whole is strung on two ropes of plaited human hair.

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The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive.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