Exquisite Stone Pounder, Tahitipenu Height 5 3/4in (14.6cm)ProvenanceCharles Ratton, ParisJosef Mueller Collection, Solothurn/GenevaBarbier-Muller Museum, Geneva ("BMG 5456" written in white on underside)Galerie Flak, ParisAmerican Private CollectionCf. Kaeppler, Adrienne, Artificial Curiosities, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 1978, fig. 263 (cat. no. 118), for a very similar cross-bar pounder collected on Cook's Voyages, formerly in the Leverian Museum and now in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna.Cf. Hooper, Steven, Pacific Encounters - Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, British Museum Press, 2006, fig. 143.Elegantly carved with cross-bar handle above the gradually tapered rounded pounding surface, in dense black (probably maupiti) stone with a glossy patina.