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Headdress (susiu)
Sulka
late 19th century
Object Place: New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Medium/Technique
Fiber, cassowary feathers, rattan, vegetable pith, and pigment
Dimensions
95.25 cm (37 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William E. and Bertha L. Teel
Accession Number1994.410
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania
ClassificationsMasks
Maskers wore these elaborate basketry headdresses during initiation rites for young men. The human-like facial features recall Sulka men's adornments, such as nose plugs and elongated earlobes. The back flap in the shape of a fish tail is said to be derived from a spirit that the maker of the mask had seen in a dream. During performances, a long skirt of betel palm leaves concealed the masker.
ProvenanceBetween about 1885 and 1910, acquired in Papua New Guinea by Maximilian Franz Thiel (b. 1865- d. 1939), Hamburg [see note]; 1910, gift of Thiel to the Königlich Zoologisches, Anthropologisch-Ethnographisches Museum, later the Museum für Völkerkunde, Dresden (inventory no. 25907); 1974, exchanged by the Museum für Völkerkunde with Everett Rassiga (dealer; b. 1922 – d. 2003), Bern. Hèléne and Philippe Leloup (dealers), Paris. June 16, 1980, anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 90. Owned jointly by Wayne Heathcote (dealer) and Maureen Zarember of Tambaran Gallery, New York; June 24, 1988, sold by Tambaran Gallery to William and Bertha Teel, Marblehead, MA; 1994, year-end gift of William and Bertha Teel to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 25, 1995)
NOTE: Consul Max Thiel was an agent for the German company Hernsheim in New Guinea beginning in 1885. It is not known exactly when or how he acquired this headdress. After being used, masks of this type were discarded or destroyed.
NOTE: Consul Max Thiel was an agent for the German company Hernsheim in New Guinea beginning in 1885. It is not known exactly when or how he acquired this headdress. After being used, masks of this type were discarded or destroyed.
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