Ramu River Garamut Drum
Ramu River region, Papua New Guinea, early 20th c.
Carved wood with traces of pigment
Ex–Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM; ex–Sotheby’s (1987)
84” l x 15” w x 18.75” (213.36 x 38.1 x 47.63 cm)
Price: $6,500
Not true drums but rather slit gongs, garamut ‘drums’ like the example at hand were “used both to make sacred music and as a means of long-distance communication.” This slit gong is equipped with two finials consisting of anthropozoomorphic “ancestor/crocodile representations” (Meyer 1995: 176, cat. 181).
