Nashville Arts Magazine

Appraise It

Polynesian Adze Handle

Cook Islands, Mangaia, third quarter 19th century, length 24 inches.

One of the aspects of dealing with “things” is the wonderment of how they get from point A to point B. Case in point, this Polynesian Island adze handle was found just off I-65 North, Exit 53 in Cave City, Kentucky, at an estate auction for the sum of $65. This Mangaian adze handle, from the southernmost island of the Cook Islands, is decoratively carved with the characteristic K motif, the symbol of Tane-mata-ariki, the god of the craftsmen.
The making of these adzes required judgment, experience, and skill. The adze maker was a taunga (expert), who enjoyed a position of social and economic importance. Persons requiring tools consulted a taunga, and on his consent they procured the stone, fed the expert during the period of work, and paid with presents of food and cloth after the work was completed.
After the Mangaians abandoned carving tools made from bone, shell, stone, or teeth and stopped using stone-bladed adzes in favor of European-supplied metal implements, they continued to create post-contact adzes for the tourist trade. The demand for these souvenirs was created by European sailors and missionaries. The newly made hafts were fitted with abandoned pre-contact stone blades of basalt or calcite. The stone adze heads were then lashed to the hafts with very finely braided plant fiber wound in traditionally significant patterns. The production of these adzes ceased in the early twentieth century due to the diminishing supply of suitable stone adze blades.

Even in its incomplete state, this mesmerizing crafted, chip-carved, and pierced wooden adze handle would be expected to fetch $1400 to $1800 at auction.

Bronze Image of the Deity Ganesha

India, late 19th–early 20th century.

Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity, was the son of Shiva and his consort Parvati. Since the fourth century, Ganesha has been humanized in many guises as the god of benevolence. Ganesha is believed to be the pitcher of prosperity, the remover of obstacles, the lord of beginnings, and the bestower of good fortune, prosperity, and health. He is perhaps the most popular God in the Hindu pantheon, for he is considered the most accessible. Ganesha may be invoked by anyone to intercede on their behalf without an intermediary. The most democratic of deities, Ganesha is a symbol of tolerance and is well loved because he has no forbidding aspects, only enduring ones.

This handsome bronze sculpture shows a seated Ganesha endowed with his usual prominent belly and incised “jeweled” ornamentation symbolizing his noble masculine strength. The serpent draped across his shoulder and across his abdomen is representative of the vast energy field of the universe. The rosary in his hand suggests that the pursuit of knowledge should be continuous. Among his many other attributes is the mouse. Some devotees of Hinduism believe the mouse represents a thief who roams the darkness of the subconscious desires, gnawing at the tranquility of the inner self. Ganesha’s supremacy over his mouse symbolizes the conquest of egoism and the self-annihilating power of desire.

Should you be so fortunate as to find an image of Ganesha of this quality and age, a fair market price would be $200.

Jade Carving

Hsi Wang Mu/Queen Mother of the West, China, late 19th century.

Hsi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, was the highest female goddess in the pantheon of the Taoist religion during the T’ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907). Hsi Wang Mu engendered heaven and earth and all beings. She ruled over the western paradise, and in her garden she grew the peaches of immortality. The Queen Mother of the West is believed to be the supreme matriarch who governed all other female deities. Her origin has been traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the fifteenth century B.C.E.

This serene jade carving of Hsi Wang Mu shows her with one of the white cranes that lived with her at her mythical golden palace by a lake. The statue carved of “moss-in-snow”-type jade has the “patent leather” surface quality that requires considerable lapidary expertise to achieve. In judging the quality of jade as a gemstone, intensity of color and transparency are critical factors. The finest jade is semi-translucent; the lower qualities are opaque.

Should this graceful carving of the Taoist divinity find its way to the auction market, it would be presented with an auction estimate of $800 to $1000.

by Linda Dyer | photography by Jerry Atnip

Linda Dyer serves as an appraiser, broker, and consultant in the field of antiques and fine art. She has appeared on the PBS production Antiques Roadshow since season one, which aired in 1997, as an appraiser of Tribal Arts.  If you would like Linda to appraise one of your antiques, please send a clear, detailed image to antiques@nashvilleartsmagazine.com. Or send photographs to Antiques, Nashville Arts Magazine, 644 West Iris Dr.,  Nashville, TN 37204.