Neck ornament of conus shells (English)

Te mwae te nikabono. Neck ornament of conus shells. This te mwae (Neck ornament) consists of 61 nouo (conus shells) segments strung onto light brown te kora (coconut sennit) which is knotted together at the closing. Each segment has been sliced off from the base of the nouo shell creating a flat disc shape that is slightly convex on the outer surface. A hole is found at the centre of each disc. The nouo shells are off-white in colour with natural dark spiralled speckling.

15846 (ethnology)

X12 (Edge-Partington)

Pacific