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Lot 1342
Carved Shell Cameo and Seed Pearl Bracelet –"Tiger Lily with Hummingbird"
27 May 2010, 13:00 EDT
New YorkUS$1,800 - US$2,500
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Find your local specialistCarved Shell Cameo and Seed Pearl Bracelet –"Tiger Lily with Hummingbird"
Cassis madagascariensis spinella, Queen Helmet conch, Caribbean Sea
Carved by Wounaan Indians of the Darien Rainforest Region of Panama
The tradition of carving for the tiny Wounaan Indian tribe indigenous to the tropical rainforests of the Darien Peninsula goes back many centuries. Usually their medium was either the hardwood species cocobolo native only to Central America or the tagua nut (known as vegetable ivory, due to its hardness). However, it was in the late 1990s that an American by the name of Andrew Ike furnished them with shells and the tools for carving them in the hope of creating cameos. Using the Queen Helmet conch, native to the waters of the Caribbean, a species long valued for its large size, rich brown-tone colors and color gradation—a new art form was born. Ike, together with his business partner Roslyn Zelenka founded a jewelry and cameo carving partnership, now called Rainforest Design, employing three native artists.
The Wounaan spend the majority of their time in dugout canoes on river estuaries living a life close to nature. Their cameo work is neither stiff nor static. Instead, they are actually detailed portraits of indigenous flora and fauna done in three-dimensional relief with the layering of color in the material providing a sense of depth.
The present shell cameo is carved to depict a tiger lily in high relief, while a hummingbird hovers above the stamen, mounted in 18K yellow gold, terminating in six strands of 3.5 mm uniform seed pearls, custom-fabricated 18K yellow gold box clasp, length 7in, signed,
Carved by Wounaan Indians of the Darien Rainforest Region of Panama
The tradition of carving for the tiny Wounaan Indian tribe indigenous to the tropical rainforests of the Darien Peninsula goes back many centuries. Usually their medium was either the hardwood species cocobolo native only to Central America or the tagua nut (known as vegetable ivory, due to its hardness). However, it was in the late 1990s that an American by the name of Andrew Ike furnished them with shells and the tools for carving them in the hope of creating cameos. Using the Queen Helmet conch, native to the waters of the Caribbean, a species long valued for its large size, rich brown-tone colors and color gradation—a new art form was born. Ike, together with his business partner Roslyn Zelenka founded a jewelry and cameo carving partnership, now called Rainforest Design, employing three native artists.
The Wounaan spend the majority of their time in dugout canoes on river estuaries living a life close to nature. Their cameo work is neither stiff nor static. Instead, they are actually detailed portraits of indigenous flora and fauna done in three-dimensional relief with the layering of color in the material providing a sense of depth.
The present shell cameo is carved to depict a tiger lily in high relief, while a hummingbird hovers above the stamen, mounted in 18K yellow gold, terminating in six strands of 3.5 mm uniform seed pearls, custom-fabricated 18K yellow gold box clasp, length 7in, signed,