Tonga
18th to early 19th century
Hardwood
Length 31.5 inches (80 cm)
Provenance: Charles Ashby – Staines, England / Curtis Museum – Alton, Hampshire, England / Robert Hales – London
Elegantly shaped wooden dance paddles, or paki, were used in traditional Tongan group dances, notably the Me’etu’upaki, where male dancers skillfully twirled and slapped the paddles to rhythmic singing and drumming.
Carved with the exclusive use of stone and shell tooling, the Tongan paki dance paddle offered here represents one of the earliest known examples. The dance paddle also was rendered with an array of triangular motifs set above the arched medial ridge, a rare and beautiful decorative element.
My friend and renown collector George Ortiz often remarked to me that he considered the elegant paki dance paddles of Tonga to be equal both in beauty and design to those highly prized dance paddles hailing from Easter Island. George in fact had mounted a series of Tongan dance paddles along the wall of his master bathroom.
Tonga
18th to early 19th century
Hardwood
Length 31.5 inches (80 cm)
Provenance: Charles Ashby – Staines, England / Curtis Museum – Alton, Hampshire, England / Robert Hales – London
Elegantly shaped wooden dance paddles, or paki, were used in traditional Tongan group dances, notably the Me’etu’upaki, where male dancers skillfully twirled and slapped the paddles to rhythmic singing and drumming.
Carved with the exclusive use of stone and shell tooling, the Tongan paki dance paddle offered here represents one of the earliest known examples. The dance paddle also was rendered with an array of triangular motifs set above the arched medial ridge, a rare and beautiful decorative element.
My friend and renown collector George Ortiz often remarked to me that he considered the elegant paki dance paddles of Tonga to be equal both in beauty and design to those highly prized dance paddles hailing from Easter Island. George in fact had mounted a series of Tongan dance paddles along the wall of his master bathroom.
