Fantasy Box of Goodies

In the 80’s my wife and I were in San Diego and stumbled upon an Antique Mall, on the second floor of a downtown building. It was huge, rambling and a bit strange. We wandered about this cavern of discarded wonders, when we came upon a table full of unusual South Pacific items for sale. While none of it was identified, it was obvious to me, no expert on the subject, that this was real nice folk art type of stuff, and certainly would be great additions to our growing, rambling folk art collection.

We purchased four items, I believe; a very tightly wound basket with a broken handle but quite beautiful, a cowrie shell purse, a monkey skull hat (maybe a monkey) and a coconut shell bowl (or a skull top bowl). There could have been more but these are the ones I still have. I believe we paid $35 for them as the owner of the booth was not there and the dealer in charge took the deal I offered.

They were out on shelves for a bit in some of the places we’ve lived and basically been in a box since the late 80’s.

My wife and I have been trying to clean out our “treasures” for a while now and this box has surfaced. I decided to try and find out what these things were and in my searching, I discovered the bowl was a very special New Guinea tribal bowl made out of a coconut shell. In about a day (a few emails) I have sold it for a very nice price, although the dealer I sold it to will do very well and the piece will travel back to California, having been to Detroit, Boston, Calgary and back here in Southern Ontario.

The cowrie shell purse is definitely a souvenir item from New Guinea, the basket and the hat are not identified. However, the hat scared my children for years and would do well to scare anyone else. I believe the hat and the basket are fine items worth tons of money (of course) if only I could identify them.

If you have an idea, let me know. They will go to eBay eventually, as they’re not a Kijiji item in my way of thinking.

Editors note: I found an expert who says :

The monkey skull is an Ifugao headdress from the Philippines. I am not sure of the basket but it does appear to be from Southeast Asia.