Feast Bowl, Hawaiian Islands

Christopher B. Hemmeter, Honolulu, acquired in the 1980s
Sotheby's, New York, November 14, 1995, lot 138, consigned by the above
Private Collection, Vermont, acquired at the above sale
Jeff Hobbs, Wellington
Mark Eglinton, New York
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on December 15, 2006

John Charles Edler and Terence Barrow, Art of Polynesia: Selections from the Hemmeter Collection of Polynesian Art, Honolulu, 1990, p. 83, pl. XXII

Pakaka (feast bowls), also known as Calabash, caught the attention of early western travelers to the Hawaiian Islands as early as the late eighteenth century. The elegant and balanced shape and proportions of these bowls is directly inspired by forms found in nature, namely the rounded shape of the gourd. Highly polished on the exterior, the earliest Hawaiian bowls were carved with coral and stone, until these tools were replaced by iron ones at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Their sheen was maintained by rubbing nut oil on the surface.

Initially, these bowls were used only by elite members of society, but around the time when iron tools were introduced, they became widely used receptacles for poi or meat. They remained nonetheless valued objects, passed down from generation to generation, symbols of community and the continuance of family histories. Their importance as prized objects meant that they were repaired and maintained as needed with butterfly wooden pegs, as seen in lots 32 and 33, which were viewed as marks of beauty and age.