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Lot 21
Rare and large lidded deep bowl, Hawaiian Islands
13 November 2018, 11:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$37,500 inc. premium
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Rare and large lidded deep bowl, Hawaiian Islands
kumauna
diameter of lid 19 1/2in (49.5cm)
overall height 10 1/2in (26.7cm)
Provenance
William Ladd (1807–1863), co-founder of the first commercial sugar plantation in Hawaii at Koloa on Kauai in 1835
Judge Antoinette Rosa, Attorney General for King Kalakaua (1836 – 1891)
Helen Niaukololani Antoinette Rosa (1898–1985)
Helen Ladd Thompson (1927-2018), Honolulu, Hawai'i
Thence by descent
Irving Jenkins notes, 'Capt. James Cook first touched the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 at the northern island of Kauai. Among the many articles of native manufacture he described during his short stay were wooden bowls: "Their wooden dishes and bowls...are of the [kou] tree, or cordia, as neat as if made in our turning-lathe, and perhaps better polished."
Hawaiian wooden bowls such as Cook observed are among the most beautiful containers made by any Pacific culture. They are traditionally of rounded form, inspired, perhaps, by the Hawaiians' earliest natural containers: gourds and coconuts. The surface both within and without was worked until very smooth, with the exterior well polished. The external surface decoration of these smooth, rounded forms was limited to the figured grain of the wood itself, and incorporated the dramatic contrast of light sapwood isolated against dark swirling heartwood.' (The Hawaiian Calabash, Editions, Ltd., Honolulu, 1989, p. 7)
Carved wooden storage containers are possibly the most attractive of Hawaiian bowl forms, for the cover completes the spherical form, imitating a gourd. Finer bowls belonging to chiefs were often fitted with a special cover which may have been used as a plate. Covers were mostly made of gourd, those made of wood are rare (Jenkins, ibid, p. 27).
Kamani wood was held in reverence throughout Hawaii and the rest of Polynesia. William Brigham notes that "the tree itself is even more beautiful than its wood, and its glossy leaves and sweet-scented flowers caused the old Hawaiians to plant it near their houses while other Polynesians attached a semi-sacred character to the tree, of which we find a trace in the sacred grove near the Puhonua or place of refuge at Halawa at the east end of Molokai." (The Ancient Hawaiian House, pp. 157-158)
This exceptional and rare example is finely hand carved in monumental scale from the highly revered and scarce kamani wood with superb natural light and dark brown contrasts and multiple indigenous repairs.
diameter of lid 19 1/2in (49.5cm)
overall height 10 1/2in (26.7cm)
Provenance
William Ladd (1807–1863), co-founder of the first commercial sugar plantation in Hawaii at Koloa on Kauai in 1835
Judge Antoinette Rosa, Attorney General for King Kalakaua (1836 – 1891)
Helen Niaukololani Antoinette Rosa (1898–1985)
Helen Ladd Thompson (1927-2018), Honolulu, Hawai'i
Thence by descent
Irving Jenkins notes, 'Capt. James Cook first touched the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 at the northern island of Kauai. Among the many articles of native manufacture he described during his short stay were wooden bowls: "Their wooden dishes and bowls...are of the [kou] tree, or cordia, as neat as if made in our turning-lathe, and perhaps better polished."
Hawaiian wooden bowls such as Cook observed are among the most beautiful containers made by any Pacific culture. They are traditionally of rounded form, inspired, perhaps, by the Hawaiians' earliest natural containers: gourds and coconuts. The surface both within and without was worked until very smooth, with the exterior well polished. The external surface decoration of these smooth, rounded forms was limited to the figured grain of the wood itself, and incorporated the dramatic contrast of light sapwood isolated against dark swirling heartwood.' (The Hawaiian Calabash, Editions, Ltd., Honolulu, 1989, p. 7)
Carved wooden storage containers are possibly the most attractive of Hawaiian bowl forms, for the cover completes the spherical form, imitating a gourd. Finer bowls belonging to chiefs were often fitted with a special cover which may have been used as a plate. Covers were mostly made of gourd, those made of wood are rare (Jenkins, ibid, p. 27).
Kamani wood was held in reverence throughout Hawaii and the rest of Polynesia. William Brigham notes that "the tree itself is even more beautiful than its wood, and its glossy leaves and sweet-scented flowers caused the old Hawaiians to plant it near their houses while other Polynesians attached a semi-sacred character to the tree, of which we find a trace in the sacred grove near the Puhonua or place of refuge at Halawa at the east end of Molokai." (The Ancient Hawaiian House, pp. 157-158)
This exceptional and rare example is finely hand carved in monumental scale from the highly revered and scarce kamani wood with superb natural light and dark brown contrasts and multiple indigenous repairs.
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