PNG; Papuan Gulf Female's (Midwife) Fertility Ornament..(mid-late 19th cent)

Description

You are looking at an exceptionally rare....Papuan Gulf female's (mid-wife) fertility ornament from the mid-late 19th cent (1870s - 1890s) with an engraved sacred fertility / pregnant image.
Only a handful of these objects exist on the planet -
they are very rare!!!!!
This piece has had quite a few English owners.
****An important fact ..........The select Papuan tribespeople who had practiced head hunting and/or ancestral head  preserving for
veneration and ceremonial
purposes had preserved/treated these objects in different ways....Different tribes had
different
recipes : some were de-fleshed, sanded and polished with oils to give them a beautiful whitish/yellowish surface patina (Asmat
hunters
)......others, were boiled in a sacred
concoctions
of herbs/tannins to give them a darker look (some Asmat & other PNG Gulf tribes)......and yet others were smoked and burned  (like this specimen) to give them a very dark and dry finish......THERE WAS NEVER ANY SINGLE SET RECIPIE FOR PRESERVING THEM...!!!!!
The old Cockatoo feather tassels and the plant fiber cord "jaw" are later (early 20th century) replacements - originally,  this ornament would've had a beautiful netted
headdress
with dangling shells - lost a long time ago.
***Note the white paint inventory inscription on the back - this is an erroneous attribution. This is NOT an Asmat headhunter specimen......The incorrect identification of such things in the early 20th cent was not an uncommon thing - many important and old
artifacts
have wrong
labels/inscriptions
on them.
This is a very important artifact!!!....It is now in need of an owner who will appreciate and respect it for what it is : a highly sacred/ritual object!
I'm letting this go for a very good price.
***** STUDY PHOTOS FOR BEST DESCRIPTION......KNOW WHAT YOU ARE BUYING......DO YOUR RESEARCH......ALL SALES ARE FINAL.......ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS!!!!!   (ask questions).
Best,
Rez