A large kava kumete or tanoa bowl - Lot 126

A large kava kumete or tanoa bowl This large kava cup was collected by Count Rodolphe Festetics de Tolna during his eight-year epic journey across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, through Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Indonesia, before landing on an islet in the Maldives, This voyage, too often romanticized as a honeymoon, was indeed a voyage of adventure, but also of collecting, where Count Festetics was in some places in real competition with other professional collectors who supplied German museums in particular. From a very early collection, the presence of its stylization, the elegance of the curved lines of its crucible and its rebounded belly, its size testifying to a community life, everything here testifies to the most beautiful ancient style of this large kava bowl. Fiji Islands or Samoa, 19th century. Wood, rattan, native restoration of a visible old crack, very fine old patina. D. 73.5 cm and H. 20.5 cm Provenance : - Collection of Count Rodolphe Festetics de Tolna, collected by him before 1896 - Collection of Dr. Stéphen Chauvet (acquired at auction, closed case, no inventory) - Jean Roudillon Collection Exhibition: L'Aristocrate et ses Cannibales Le voyage en Océanie du Comte Festetics de Tolna (1893-1896) at the Musée du Quai Branly, from October 23, 2007 to January 13, 2008.