Cassera Aboriginal ‘Lonka Lonka’ Pubic-Cover

Aboriginal Pearl Shell ‘Lonka Lonka’ Publc-Cover, Western Australia, circa late 19th - early 20th century. Ex. Michael Hanson, Palo’s Verdes, Ex. Mark Assayag, Montreal 

Pearl shells were in use from at least 1818. In 1818 the French explorers  Freycinet records the following in Shark Bay, Western Australia. “An old man painted with stripes of various colors and distinguished from the rest by a shell hanging from his girdle”.