Massim Shield-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
Massim shields are very rare and most have elaborate painted designs whose meaning are hotly contested. This one I acquired earlier this month and had sat in a Phoenix warehouse for close to 50 years. It has a very minimal design of carved and painted concentric circles. It has the elegant shape and curves classic to the type. There is a slightly more carved but similar example in the British Museum with concentric circle motif collected by Dr. Bronislaw Malinowski before 1922 (Oc, M. 94). My present shield dates to the early 20th century, is 30 ½” (80.6 cm) in height.