The black abstract design represents a stylized frigate bird.  Although wicker shields were numerous, few have survived from this early period. Already in 1897, Lieutenant Boyle Somerville reported that these shields were "exceedingly difficult to procure" (1897: 74, quoted in Waite 1983).

REFERENCES

Benitez-Johannot, P., and Jean Paul Barbier. Shields: Africa, Southeast Asia and Oceania; from

the collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum. Munich: Prestel, 2000, pp. 224–5

Beran, Harry, Tom Arthur, and Rebecca Chrisp. Oceanic and Indonesian Art: Collector's

Choice; an exhibition of 102 works from 90 private Australian collections at Nomadic

Rug Trader, Sydney, 18 July to 14 August 1998. Woollahra, NSW: Oceanic Art Society in

association with Crawford House, 1998, p. 84.

Hurst, Norman. Power and Prestige: The Arts of Island Melanesia and the Polynesian Outliers.

Cambridge, MA: Hurst Gallery, 1996, p. 13.

Neich, Roger, and Fulimalo Pereira. Pacific Jewelry and Adornment from the Collections of

Auckland Museum. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.

Waite, Deborah. Art of the Solomon Islands: From the Collection of the Barbier-Müller

Collection. Geneva: Musée Barbier-Müller, 1983.

Waite, Deborah, and Kevin Conru. Solomon Islands Art: the Conru Collection. Milan: 5

Continents, 2008, fig. 84.