Marquesas Islands, Polynesia
Cachalot, 5 x 38 cm

Provenance:
Collection Jay C. Leff, Uniontown Pennsylvania
Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., 4 October 1969, lot 148
John J. Klejman, New York
Sotheby's New York, 8 May 1996, lot 34
Private collection
Property from a Princely collection

Exhibited:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Exotic Art, From Ancient and Primitive Civilizations, Collection of Jay C. Leff, 15 October 1959 - 3 January 1960
New York, The American Museum of Natural History, Faces and Figures, Pacific Island Art from the collection of Jay C. Leff, January - May 1965

Literature:
Exotic Art, From Ancient and Primitive Civilizations, Collection of Jay C. Leff, 1960, cat.166
Faces and Figures, Pacific Island Art from the collection of Jay C. Leff, 1965: 45, cat.12

The use of tobacco was one of the first Western practices adopted in the Marquesas Islands and other areas of Polynesia. From as early as the beginning of the 19th C. pipes were locally made. The oldest ones were made of marine ivory, dating back to the arrival of whalers in the Pacific waters at the end of the 18th century. Other sperm whale ivory artifacts, a.o. ear ornaments, but surely pipes like this one too, were reserved for high dignitaries. They were highly valued objects and were often passed down as heirlooms or occasionally buried with their owners.
It is exceedingly rare to find a fully intact old marine ivory pipe like the one presented here. Decorated by four tiki figures, the elegant carving of the bowl testifies to extraordinary craftsmanship.
In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (inv. 1986.476.5) we find a similar pipe bowl but without its stem.