"Ateis represent important ancestors and the animal carvings symbolize the various clan totems that were related to the ancestor (Newton 1967, nos.35-38). In this particular example, a fish is carved at the center, two pairs of hornbills are shown facing upwards and downwards in each side of the head, and another bird looks down on the figure from above its head. Referring to an example from the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Alfred Buhler (1969, p.76) has written that `they are erected in cult houses and invoked as oracles before war (nowadays before a hunting expedition)." (Wardwell 1994: 42)

Provenance:
Philippe Guimiot, Brussels, 2003
Sotheby's New York, 2002
Masco Collection, Detroit
Wayne Heathcote
John Friede, New York
Catholic Divine Apostolic Monastery, Sydney
Collected by Father Franz Kirschbaum, about 1930

This board was photographed before 1929 by the German missionary, Father Franz Kirschbaum. In photograph, included here, it is the fourth board from the left.

Publishing History:
Allen Wardwell. Island Ancestors. Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. Detroit. University of Washington Press in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1994: 42-43, fig 7 and 278.