Bowl, Hawaiian Islands Archipelago

Collection Eduard Christian Arning (1855-1936), acquired in situ on the island of Molokaï between 1884 and 1886

Probably Sotheby’s, 1938

Charles Ratton, Paris, acquired at this sale, police book number No. 2292, “Hawaiian Islands cup, purchase S”

Galerie Ratton- Ladrière, Paris

Galerie Monbrison, Paris

Gillett Griffin, et al. eds., Ancient American Art, 3500 BC-AD 1532, Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Collection of Jimmy and Leonora Belilty, 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2011, p. 378

This ritual Hawaiian bowl, finely carved from solid wood, reveals the sophistication and symbolic depth of the archipelago's traditional religious practices. A prestigious artifact used in ceremonies dedicated to the deities of the Hawaiian pantheon, it was a vessel for food offerings, plant-based preparations, or sacred substances intended for rituals of communication with the world of the akua (deities). This exemplar was brought to the West by Dr Eduard Christian Arning. An Anglo-German microbiologist, he conducted a study of a leper colony on the island of Molokai between 1884 and 1886.

Aslo known as umeke là' au pàkàkà, this type of object brings families together to share a meal.

Beyond its utilitarian role, this bowl was a true ritual object, central to the symbolic exchanges between officiants and unseen forces.