Necklace tuinga kahoa
Place: Tonga
Category: Jewellery & adornment
snail shell, coconut fibre, Tonga, l. 54 cm, Inv. Oz 194
Humphrey No. 73: ‘Curious small red long Snails* (*These Shells are also of a new Species.) neatly plaited together with fibres of the Cocoa Nut, and forming a pretty kind of Necklace, from the Friendly Islands.’
Small red snail shells are incorporated into a plaited string in such a way that they cannot be moved, with small spaces of varying length left in between. Inken Köhler, Ulrike Rehr, Gundolf Krüger