MARKAM VALLEY NATIVE BALANCE OR SCALE

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Price: $550.00

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Item Number: 08-1055

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Actual Markam Valley Cargo Cult native fabrication of a European traders balance or scale. Made of four pieces with well shaped balance beam pivoted from the suspension bar on a brad (nail). The pans made of coconut shells with a hole in the bottom of each and suspended from copper wire and even painted gold to simulate brass. The wire, nails and paint clearly salvaged from trash at the airport. It does balance, largely due to the friction in the pivot which makes it ineffective as a scale. Further, the pan suspensions are not fixed allowing movement which negates the equality of balance. The holes in the pans preclude their use for granular material and the small size (9 1/2 overall width) makes it useless for anything else. Surface soil/light encrustation overall. Ex. Gunter Hintz Collection and to our knowledge, the only Cargo Cult replication in private hands and perhaps surviving at all as all were highly perishable and their creators were cannibals!