116. CEREMONIAL FORK, FIJI icula, bulutoko wood 34 cm. long Provenance Private collection, England As Steven Hooper explains (in Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific, Norwich, 2016, p.246), such forks often referred to as "cannibal forks" were in fact used by chiefs and priests for the consumption of any kind of cooked meat, especially when in a consecrated tabu state, the fork being used to place meat directly in the mouth when normally hands would be used. The present lot is rare having only three prongs whereas the majority have four. For another three-pronged fork, of similar large dimensions, see Hooper, S., op.cit., p.247, no.225.