KANAK, NEW CALEDONIA

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A stunning example of a hand-carved hardwood adze with a bulbous central body, exhibiting sumptuous caramel and coffee hues. Protruding from the lower portion of the body is a tapered ovoid handle, wrapped at the junction with braided sennit fiber. A tongue-like blade of mottled nephrite is wedged tightly within the forked gap of the head, around which substantial lengths of sennit fiber cord are wrapped to clamp the blade inside. Its robust form – compact, curvaceous and graced with smooth and lustrous surfaces – suggests a vigorous muscularity and tight sculptural energy.

Adzes like this one were among the most important tools in pre-contact Polynesia and Melanesia. They were used for a variety of utilitarian and agricultural practices, but the ceremonial nature of the nephrite blade makes this example truly exceptional. Nephrite was typically used for adzes meant to embody chiefly authority, and their power was derived from the earth which the adze would move. In good condition with original blade and sennit binding.