This unusual piece is probably the top a dance staff from the Sawos culture, north of the middle Sepik River. However, Barry Craig from the South Australia Museum rightly suggested that this piece could be a flute stopper and drew my attention to a Kwoma piece illustrated in Kelm’s “Kunst Vom Sepik II ill. 124/125. Either way, the figures have a monumental quality with both the ancestral face and the bird having powerfully archaic forms. The ancestral face and bird both have powerfully archaic forms. There are remains of white, red and yellow pigments. The piece is 19 ¼" in height. sold