Scoop

The handles of the ladles from the Admiralty Islands are carved in a wide variety of ways. Nothing is known about the possible meaning of the designs that range from realistic representations of fish or crocodiles to abstract geometric shapes. What is known, however: these objects were used in a celebratory context or within a ceremony. This ladle, as well as other objects in the Oceania collection, was collected by Wilhelm Lebahn, captain of the Imperial Navy survey ship »S.M.S. Planet«, on which the ethnologist, anthropologist and marine doctor Augustin Krämer was also travelling. The Lebahn collection was sold after his death by his brother-in-law Dr. Rudolf Plähn from Waldkirch.