Lot 153 Dα

Cf. Peltier, P. et al., "Sepik : Arts de Papousie-Nouvelle-Guinée", Paris, 2015, p.245, fig.123. for a similar barkcloth loincloth donated by C. Wahnes to the Dresden Museum für Völkerkunde, in 1899. Another in the South Australia Museum, acquired in Rabaul by the Edgar Waite Expedition in 1918, is illustrated in Howarth, C., "Myth + Magic: Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea", Canberra, 2015, p.78. Howarth attributes the Edgar Waite loincloth to the area at the mouth of the Sepik River. He states that in the Murik Lakes area a ceremonial event, called a "loincloth feast", involves dressing a first born male child in regalia including the loincloth itself.