Large ornamental comb with 17 tines of black palmwood and elaborate binding of yellow, red and black orchid stem fibre.
Combs of this general type are characteristic of Malaita, the larger curved ones especially of north Malaita. The red vine-strip is coconut-frond cuticle stained with Indian Mulberry (Morinda), the yellow is orchid stem. See Burt, Akin and Kaw’ioloa, 2009, which describes the manufacture for the smaller combs in Kwaio researched by David Akin.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
