My name is Danae Van Meert and I am an artist who specializes in unique, hand carved and painted, authentic wooden figureheads. Although they were originally used for good fortune on ships and yachts, the hot new trend is to use them for home or office decoration. I have attached a brief description and history of the figure heads
Figureheads are carved wooden decorations found at the prow of ships,
largely made between the 16th and 19th century.The purpose of the
figurehead was often to indicate the name of the ship in a
non-literate society (albeit in a sometimes very convoluted manner);
and always, in the case of naval ships, to demonstrate the wealth and
might of the owner. At the height of the Baroque period, some ships of
the line boasted gigantic figureheads, weighing several tons and
sometimes twinned on both sides of the bowsprit. A product that is not
only unique, but also made by the The Mapuches (a group of indigenous
inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina), Figureheads
constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who
shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a
common linguistic heritage.
Their influence extended between the Aconcagua River and Chiloé Archipelago and later eastward to the Argentine pampa. The Mapuche make up about 4% of the Chilean
population, and are particularly concentrated in Araucanía Region due to emigration into Santiago. I saw one of the Mapuchean on the side of the Chilean Patagonia road selling this unique never twice made figureheads, they where thought by the Germans long time ago, and now is one of their ways to make a living, I could not resist the beauty of this art and got a few as investment to help them out. Now I bring
them for the first time to Chicago, and unique in the USA as well, you can research for it, but will find only optic fiber made one.
This are not only for your boat prow but as art, you can hung them
anywhere, your house, office, a restaurant etc. that I leave to your
Hope you love it as I do.
