Lot 172 Dα

The figure, still part of a complete post within the custom house, aofa, in Nataghera, Santa Ana, can be seen in an early photograph reproduced in a 1956 Melanesian Mission publication, Santa Ana Prayer Book. The post was still in the same position when the custom house was photographed by Sidney Mead in 1971. The post was reputedly removed from its original location in a neighbouring village when that village was converted to Christianity in the 1940s.

Cf. Kaeppler, A. et al., Oceanic Art, New York, 1997, p.451, fig.485, for a similar post in the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, collected on Santa Ana by E. Paravicini in 1929.

Additional image : Custom House, Nataghera, Santa Ana, reproduced in The Santa Ana Prayer Book, 1956