Lot 150 Dα

Lime spatulas from the Admiralty Islands collected on the voyage of La Korrigane in 1935

In March 1934 La Korrigane set sail from Marseille with a group of five friends and amateur ethnologists; Etienne and Monique de Ganay, Etienne’s sister and her husband, Régine and Charles van den Broek, and Jean Ratisbonne. Along with a crew of eight they arrived in the South Seas in August and began collecting artefacts by exchange with local people and through gifts and purchases from resident colonials.

In September 1935 La Korrigane reached the eastern Admiralty Islands archipelago visiting Rambutjio, Pak, Lou, Mok, Pam, Baluan, Pere, Bunaï and Manus spending just twelve days in the archipelago but collecting hundreds of objects of daily life.

Jean Ratisbonne, a good friend of Étienne de Ganay and Charles van den Broek, would take on the role of the expedition’s photographer. He collected many objects himself during the expedition, many of which were loaned to the Musée de l’Homme’s La Korrigane exhibition in 1938. Some he went on to donate to the museum in 1961. In 1989 much of the rest of his collection of artefacts was sold at auction by Audap-Godeau-Solanet where all the following spatulas were offered.

Image : A man holding several lime spatulas is seated before the photographer, Jean Ratisbonne. Admiralty Islands, September 1935.
© Droits réservés © musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/image musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac