Trophy Skull Museum Model Of Skull in Fish, Based

A fish with a skull for a heart, swimming forever on a steel post.

This trophy skull museum model of a skull in a fish is from the Solomon Islands and dates to the 20th century. It is resin, hemp, wood, cowrie and pigment. In the western Solomon Islands, carved fish forms and shrines were often associated with the keeping of ancestral and trophy skulls, and models like this reproduce that tradition. The long dark body opens at the center to show a reddish skull. Bound bands of hemp circle the body, cowrie shells mark the eye and the forked tail. It is 42.5 inches wide and 11 high.

The craftsmanship is wholly serious, and the fish looks it.