Early 20th Century Hand Carved Wooden Suriname Comb Made by Friimen (Maroon) People

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Rare Hand Carved Wooden Suriname Comb circa Early 20th Century
Aprox. dimensions: 14"
Very good original condition!

This compelling piece … Read more Rare Hand Carved Wooden Suriname Comb circa Early 20th Century
Aprox. dimensions: 14"
Very good original condition!

This compelling piece of art was created by the Friimen (Maroon) People of Suriname in the early 20th century. Combs like these were typically carved by men for their wives as tokens of affection and they would have been used to craft the elaborate hair styles that Suriname women are renown for. The various cultural groups that make up the Maroon peoples are the descendants of escaped slaves who had been brought from Africa to work on the Dutch plantations along the Suriname coast. While it is tempting to draw a straight line from the art of various tribes in Africa to the work created by the Maroons, this would be vastly overstating the direct influence of African art traditions on current day Suriname art. The early groups of Maroons actually had a relatively unadorned material culture, their decorative arts really only began developing in the middle of the 19th century, first with simple, rudimentary ornament that has evolved into a rich artistic culture of great complexity and sophistication that permeates all aspects of daily life. It seems that the rich artistic life of these communities is connected to Africa more by the continuation of aesthetic preferences and ideas that were carried forward in the activities of daily life rather than through the inheritance of physical objects, a remarkable testament to the tenacity of creativity in the human condition. See less