The provenance of this object is unclear. An old inventory number is missing. In the New Inventory Book of 1924, the object is recorded with the entry "Scraper. made of mother-of-pearl shell. belonging to one of Schabapperat (like N. 1398)" and was assigned to the Brandeis gift from the Marshall Islands of November 1901. The object II/1398 mentioned is a coconut scraper that was part of the first Brandeis consignment in April 1900 (see object list, no. 30, SAF D.Sm 35/1) and is missing the shell. It is therefore possible that II/1356 is the missing shell from II/1398. However, the shells used in scrapers are often coarser than this one. According to the index card from 1970, however, the object was identified by Dr Kußmaul as a tattooing tool. This was also subsequently noted in the New Inventory Book. However, there are doubts about this functional description, as the tools known from the Marshall Islands look different. The object has a drilled hole through which a coconut fibre cord is threaded so that it can be worn or hung as a pendant. It is therefore no longer possible to determine whether it is part of a scraper, a tattooing tool or a piece of jewellery. It can therefore only be surmised that it comes from the Marshall Islands and belongs to the Brandeis collection. Apart from the missing shell for scraper II/1398, no entry in the two object lists for the collection applies to this object.