Rare Easter Island Gorget with Bearded Male Heads

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Easter Island Gorget of great Rarity. Eastern Polynesia, c1850. This large crescent shaped breast pendant, with opposing bearded male heads at the tips, eyes inlaid with volcanic glass, & with an undercut toggle for suspending the gorget. Wood bone and Obsidian. Provenance: The Morton D May collection, St Louis, Mo. USA. Donated by May to the St Louis Art Museum in 1974 the Gorget still retaining the accession number 197.1680 to the reverse. Acquired through De accession. Private collection Sydney, NSW. Literature: This Easter Islands gorget is published in 'Ritual Arts of the south Seas?, the Morton D May collection, 1975, p. 203. Morton D May was the owner of the May Department stores in St Louis, and during his lifetime, amassed a huge collection of tribal Art, & also paintings, especially German Expressionists. All of this was later bequeathed to the St Louis Art Museum, length 54 cm

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Obsidian - Obsidian is an igneous rock, of volcanic origins, created when molten rock cools rapidly forming into a glass-like material. It has been used for thousands of years to make cutting tools.

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