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Details
LOT 2198
Victorian 'Freaks Fair' Model of a Shrunken Head
19TH CENTURY A.D.
8 in. (810 grams total, 20.5 cm including stand).
A tribal head modelled from leather with applied hair, moustache, eyebrows and eyelashes; pierced through the lips and ears; set in a later glass dome with base. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired Mellors & Kirk, circa 2019.
Ian Wilkinson collection, Nottinghamshire, UK, formed since 1985.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Footnotes
The freak show was the archetypal expression of popular culture, enjoyed by everyone regardless of their class. The freak show was presented to the public as entertaining and educational, offering the opportunity to learn about anatomy and the ‘realities’ of people from foreign lands. The real 'shrunken heads' known as tsantsas were severed human heads that were used by tribal cultures as war trophies or for ceremonial purposes. They were also used to scare off an enemy, using the heads as a threat, or also in religious rituals.
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