French Ancestral Trophy Skull Museum Model

An iron hook rises from the crown like a pair of horns, and a rattan loop hangs from the nose.

This ancestral trophy skull museum model is from France and dates to the 20th century. It is cowrie, rattan and iron, of Dayak origin, from Borneo. Skulls were historically central to some Dayak beliefs about ancestors and power, and models like this reproduce such objects. The face is painted a bright orange. A forked iron hook rises from the top, set in a small ring of cowries. A wrapped rattan ring passes through the nasal opening and hangs below the jaw. It stands on a black metal mount, 13 inches high.

Striking from every angle, which was surely the point.