Papua New Guinea Art – Decorated Gourd, #7050

This elaborate phallocrypt featuring suspended shells and beads from both the base and the tip of the dried gourd was made by the Iatmul people of the middle Sepik River.

A face, most likely of an ancestor, made of painted bush twine also ornaments this sheath.

Decorative gourds are mainly worn by New Guinea men for ceremonial events and collected by visitors to the area; however, these sheaths were once worn by the Iatmul as everyday clothing.

Across the border in Indonesian Papua plain gourds are still worn by the Dani people and several other remote tribes.

This gourd measures 11.25 inches long with an opening diameter of 1 5/8 inches.


#7050 Phallocrypt from the middle Sepik River villages of Mumeri and Kamanabit. Papua New Guinea 


$90.00