French Trophy Skull Museum Model

White face, orange beard, wide shell eyes and a crown of spikes. Hard to look away.

This trophy skull museum model is from France and dates to the 20th century. It is clay, shell and pigment. Overmodeled skulls, with features rebuilt in clay and painted, are well documented in parts of Melanesia. Here the face is a crackled white, with a bold orange band across the brow, down the nose and around the mouth and jaw. Large round eyes are set in black rings. Rows of small pointed shells edge the crown and the chin. It stands on a metal mount, 11 inches deep and 7 high.

Painted to be seen, and very much seen.