breast ornament (personal adornment)

Breast ornament (tema), consisting of a disc which has been cut and ground from a Tridacna shell. This is overlaid with a finely cut fretwork motif in tortoiseshell of an abstracted, multi-winged and multi-beaked frigate-bird. The disc has a hole in the centre, through which a cord has been looped.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
nn19414
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 396 mm x 123 mm x 13 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
shell; giant clam shell; hawksbill turtle tortoiseshell; vegetable fibre
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
World Gallery > Oceania > Sea crossing
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Collection Information

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