Art of the Solomon Islands in the British Museum

 

Wooden Bowl in the Form of a Human Head
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Art of the Solomon Islands in the British Museum

 

Curated by Steven G. Alpert

 
 

For August, Art of the Ancestors highlights well-conceived objects fashioned with purpose from the artistic canon of the Solomon Islands. To the East of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands consist of six large islands, a further forty smaller islands, and many idyllic atolls and islets. The capital, Honiara, is located on Guadalcanal Island, the other five large islands being New.Georgia, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Malaita, and San Cristobal. To the Southeast are the Santa Cruz Islands. Bougainville and the Buka Islands form the northern part of the Solomon Archipelago and overlap into Papua New Guinea. 

The borders of what are now the Solomon Islands were created by competing German, French, and British colonial interests between 1886 and 1899. A British Protectorate was proclaimed there in 1893 and remained in place until 1978 when the Solomon Islands became an independent nation.

The artworks featured below are both conserved and stewarded by the British Museum. Detailed provenances and well-kept notations on various items from this region are relatively rare, and their presence and availability dramatically enrich our understanding of the traditional cultures deriving from these islands. This group of objects is nothing less than revelatory regarding the beauty of the finest items in conjunction with a profusion of valuable documentation. (The online collection of the British Museum lists 8,727 entries under the Solomon Islands.)     

Stephen Thompson (1831 - 1893)
Five carvings in wood inlaid with pearl shell, 1863, printed in 1870
Photographed in London, England

The vast majority of Solomon Islands material in the collection dates from the second half of the 19th through the 1st half of the 20th century. There was a further disgorgement of cultural products just before and during World War II, as many of the islands were directly or peripherally in the war zone. In recent decades, there has also been an ongoing discussion of what constitutes a traditional ritual item in the continuum of a 'living culture' compared to other forms of 'revivalism,' where the intent is to create beautiful items for sale. This, in turn, makes the Solomon Islands an intriguing area for immersion, connoisseurship, study, and further appreciation. The region's finest traditional creations, whether for personal adornment, ritual display, war canoes, men's houses, communal structures, or ancestral shrines, illustrate artistry where pride of creation and exacting craftsmanship are often convergent and still exist.

To celebrate one's status and honor the ancestors, to revel in the aftermath of successful raids, large feasting platters, bowls, pudding plates, cups, and so forth, were carefully made and kept in men's houses and where the village's war canoes were stored. To distinguish themselves and project the status of an individual or the men's house's martial exploits, many of these ceremonial items were inlaid with carefully cut and shaped inlays of mother-of-pearl. While such utilitarian pieces are numerous, several of the finer examples from the British Museum, as seen here, include a magnificent portrait cup and an early bowl, as well as bowls with distinctive inlays.

As a culture of panoply and display, particularly in the western Solomon Islands, the use of inlays to make something shimmer or be emboldened accentuated both virtue and fierceness. This can be seen in a wide array of other items of material culture ranging from those used as personal adornments, such as combs and large spooled earrings, to ceremonial and chiefly batons, shields, and ancestral figures. Illustrated below is a magnificent shield from New Georgia or Guadalcanal. These were called kinumbekubere, which means 'inscribed shield.' They represent a rare type of shield which were traded or exchanged as prestige objects or perhaps displayed or paraded in processions by paramount chiefs. In the realm of statuary, a well-rendered inlaid 19th-century statue of a man holding a fish is reproduced from the Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia. 

The most iconic inlaid items are the nguzu nguzu (musu musu or toto isu) or figureheads that once adorned the islands' famous war canoes. These are generally half torsos with poised raised arms that are either touching or holding a bird or a human head. They were lashed above the waterline on the impressive curving prows of great vessels. There are many legends about their creation, but one that always struck home is that these carvings were the protectors or 'eyes' of the war canoe. As 'living' talismans, they helped ensure successful raids and homeward returns. Once an important item associated with headhunting, the nguzu nguzu can be seen in contemporary renderings in art, in traditional and modern forms, as well as gracing the nation's one-dollar coin first minted in 2012. From the British Museum collection, we are featuring three of their many fine canoe prow ornaments. Two are inlaid with shell; a third is a simple but evocative example.

Just as the reflective shell was artfully used on black-colored wood, ornaments shone magnificently against the islander's skin. Such an intelligent use of contrasts made both creations and humans vibrate with vitality and profound beauty. In the Solomon Islands, not only was mother-of-pearl shell utilized, but polished pieces from the carapace of sea turtles and the varied use of sections of giant clam or tridacna gigas shell were also worked by indigenous craftsmen. Tridacna can be seen as the superb central component in a 'money-ring' necklace or bakeha. It was also employed as the background to display, stabilize, and radiate turtle shell cutouts for dala and other ornamentsOne such large medallion from Choiseul Island is illustrated below. These adornments are similar to what is often referred to in the broader region as kap-kap and were worn in former times upon one's head. Another common use of tridacna is in cutout plaques or barava, traditionally used to decorate skull houses and mortuary sites to honor one's ancestors.

Floats and protective figures often mediate or merge with the world of the sea and its creatures, such as sharks, with humans. In a carving from San Cristobal, a dangerous sea spirit was carved as a protective gable ornament for a canoe house, or it was possibly affixed to the door to a chief's house. It was intended to ward off all manners of malevolency. The museum's notes on this twenty-eight-inch-tall figure state that wild spirits could travel on rainbows and were capable of shooting people as if arrows had pierced them. Fishermen, it was said, had to be alert for rainbows in 'sun showers and waterspouts — both signs that the sea spirits were present.'

The British Museum also has a number of fine figures from the Santa Cruz islands, including well-rendered munge dukna statues of tutelary male deities that were arrayed on house altars or in men's houses. Dukna were adorned and propitiated for good outcomes and abundant blessings. Three marvelous examples are reproduced below. In contrast to the area's finely rendered human figures, simple abstractions and elegant designs appear on clubs, personal adornments, and the neck rest illustrated below, which reminds one of the best neck pillows from Polynesia, given its grace, execution, and warm patination.

The British Museum's aggregation of material culture from the Solomon Islands is breathtaking and filled with many surprises, both for the casual voyager and the well-informed seeker.

Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors

 
 
 

1

 
 

Wooden Bowl with Human Face

 
 

Wooden Bowl with Human Face
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Early 20th century

Wood, pearlshell

Bequeathed by Rev David Lloyd Francis

Donated through Mrs J M K Carver, 1992

Oc1992,02.2

 
 

2

 
 

Wooden Food Bowl

 
 

Wooden Food Bowl
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Wood

Field collected by Sir Cuthbert Edgar Peek

Purchased from Sir Wilfred Peek, 1926

Oc1926,-.79

 
 
 
 

3

 
 

Wooden Bowl in the Form of a Human Head

 

Wooden Bowl in the Form of a Human Head
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Wood, pearlshell

From Sir Arthur Charles Hamilton Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore

Oc1972,Q.60

 
 

4

 
 

Shield with Anthropomorphic Figure |
Lave Kinumbekubere

Shield with Anthropomorphic Figure | Lave Kinumbekubere
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Late 19th century

Vine, resin, pearlshell, rattan

Donated by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1954

Oc1954,06.197

 
 
 

5

 
 

Male Figure Holding a Fish

 
 

Male Figure Holding a Fish
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

19th century, pre-1893

Wood, pearlshell

Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis

Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904

Oc1904,0621.12

 
 

6

 
 

Canoe Prow Ornament

 
 

Canoe Prow Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Wood, pearlshell

Donated by Henry Christy, 1860-1869

Oc.1659

 
 

7

 
 

Canoe Prow Ornament

 

Canoe Prow Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Wood, shell

Found unnumbered in the Department's collections; date and means of acquisition unknown.

Oc1937,0315.38

 
 
 

8

 
 

Canoe Prow Ornament

 

Canoe Prow Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Wood, pearlshell

Donated by Charles M Woodford, 1927

Oc1927,-.113

 
 

9

 
 

Stone Fretwork Carving

 
 

Stone Fretwork Carving
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

19th century

Tridacna shell

Purchased from Charles M Woodford, 1915

Oc1915,-.27

 
 
 

10

 
 

Dala Ornament

 

Dala Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

19th century

Tridacna shell, turtle-shell

Field collected by Cohn

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1799

 
 
 
 
 

11

 
 

Money-Ring Pendant | Bakiha

 
 

Money-Ring Pendant | Bakiha
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Tridacna shell, turtle-shell, glass, dolphin tooth, fiber

Purchased from Charles M Woodford, 1915

Oc1915,-.61

 
 
 

12

 
 

Dukna Figure

 

Dukna Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Wood, fiber

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1175

 

13

 
 

Dukna Figure

 

Dukna Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Wood, leaf, bark fiber, turtle-shell

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1176

 
 

14

 
 

Figurative Sea Spirit Door Ornament

 

Figurative Sea Spirit Door Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

19th century, before 1893

Wood, feather

Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis

Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904

Oc1904,0621.14

 
 
 

15

 
 

Male Figure

 

Male Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

19th century, before 1877

Wood, pearlshell

Field collected by R G Whitfield

Purchased from Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 1877

Oc,+.436.d

 
 

16

 
 

Crescent Moon Dance Shield or Baton | Koka

 

Crescent Moon Dance Shield or Baton | Koka
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Late 19th century

Made by Bougainville

Wood, chalk

Donated by Rear-Adm G Hand, 1900

Oc1900,-.65

 
 

17

 
 

Figurative Lime-Flask or Box

 

Figurative Lime-Flask or Box
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Wood, pearlshell

Previously owned by Adm Sir Henry Mangles Denham and William Bragge

Purchased from William Wareham, 1882

Funded by Christy Fund

Oc,Bh.22

 
 

18

 
 

Figurative Canoe Ornament

 

Figurative Canoe Ornament
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

19th century, before 1877

Wood, shell, cowrie shell

Field collected by R G Whitfield

Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 1877

Oc,+.436.c

 
 
 

19

 
 

Fish Shaped Coffin

 

Fish Shaped Coffin
© The Trustees of the British Museum

19th century, before 1891

Wood, bone

Field collected by Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis

Purchased by Edward Gerrard & Sons, 1904

Oc1904,0621.13

 
 
 
 
 

20

 
 

Fishing Float surmounted by a Sea-Spirit Figure

 

Fishing Float surmounted by a Sea-Spirit Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Fishing Float surmounted by a Sea-Spirit Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

19th century, pre-1865

Wood, stone

Donated by Julius Lucius Brenchley, 1870

Oc.6317

 
 

21

 
 

Shark-Man Lime Spatula

 

Shark-Man Lime Spatula
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

19th century, before about 1910

Bone

Donated by Mrs W G Ivens, 1940

Previously owned by Rev Walter George Ivens

Oc1940,03.18

 
 
 

22

 
 

Wooden Bowl with Frigate-Bird Design

 

Wooden Bowl with Frigate-Bird Design
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Wood, pearlshell

Donated by Mrs W G Ivens, 1940

Previously owned by Rev Walter George Ivens

Oc1940,03.3

 
 
 
 
 

23

 
 

Zoomorphic Wooden Bowl

 

Zoomorphic Wooden Bowl
© The Trustees of the British Museum

19th century, before 1872

Wood, pearlshell

Donated by Charles Frederick Wood, 1872

Oc.7632

 
 
 
 
 

24

 
 

Seated Dukna Figure

 

Seated Dukna Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 

Wood, fiber

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1170

 
 

25

 
 

Wooden Pillar surmounted by a Seated Figure

 

Wooden Pillar Surmounted by a Seated Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Wood

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1182

 
 
 

26

 
 

Dukna Figure

 

Dukna Figure
© The Trustees of the British Museum

 
 
 

Turtle-shell, coin seed, fiber, wood, shell

Donated by Irene Marguerite Beasley, 1944

Previously owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

Oc1944,02.1169

 
 

27

 
 

Wooden Head Rest in the Form of a Bird

 

Wooden Head Rest in the Form of a Bird
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Wood

Purchased from Canterbury Royal Museum, 1961

Oc1961,03.1

 
 
 
 

All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the British Museum.
© The Trustees of the British Museum