Nissan Island Fish Scoop Net-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Tribal Art
Nissan is a gorgeous ring-shape island with a huge lagoon in the center located between New Ireland and Bougainville Island. Pre-WWI they had some amazing masks but by the time I was there in the early 2000s there was very little traditional artifacts to find. There were some amazing thick tubular-shaped clam shell currency rings the people kept buried and then these cool fish dip nets they used to scoop small fish in the lagoon. I collected a few at the time and recently reacquired this after nearly 15 years in a private collection. It is a nice old one in near perfect condition. It dates to the mid 20th century and stands 20 ¾” (52.6 cm) in height as mounted. The price is $1100. And for you history buffs you might be interested to know that in WWII Navy Lt. Richard Nixon was a supply officer stationed there and Charles Lindbergh flew missions from the very long runway constructed on the island. Both Bob Hope and Jack Benny performed there—obviously all important information relevant to this quite elegant fish basket…Questions?