A Rare and Unusual Blonde Specimen of a Seychelles ‘Coco de Mer’

Period: 1800-1900

Medium: Coconut, Nut, Coco de Mer

Dimension: 32 x 29.5 cm (12⁵/₈ x 11⁵/₈ inches)

Provenance: Ex Private UK collection

See:
Finch & Co catalogue no. 3, 2003 item no. 35, for another blonde example

Literature: ‘Coco de Mer’ come from a tall palm tree that is indigenous to the Seychelles Islands. They are the largest known seed in the world and take 8 to 10 years to ripen.
The palm was erroneously called ‘Lodoicea Maladivica’ by the botanist Rumphius after observing the double nuts floating around the Maldives Islands. In fact they are not related to the coconut palm, but to the Palmyrah of Sri Lanka, and were discovered in 1743 on the Seychelles Island of Praslin by the Frenchman Barre. Described in the 1737 inventory of the Royal Danish Kunstkammer at Rosenberg Castle in Copenhagen as ‘complete, rare and beautiful’ the ‘coco de mer’ became a legendary curiosity.
The source of many legends and mysteries, they have always been prized for their exotic, erotic and shapely beauty and thought to be powerful aphrodisiacs. European sailors would find them floating gracefully in the warm seas of the Indian Ocean and so named them ‘Coco de Mer’.