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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  25
• Lot Description:
  An Early Rainforest Shield
  Mulgrave River, Cairns, Queensland (late nineteenth century)
  carved figwood and natural earth pigments
  bears Pitt-Rivers collection inscription 'BT. OF FENTON, MAY 1895. MULGRAVE RIVER W. AUSTRALIA. SHIELD. 1114' and previous cat no. 1738AL verso
  86 cm high
• Provenance:
  The Pitt-Rivers Collection, Farnham, Dorset, United Kingdom; Private Collection, United Kingdom (1970s); Private Collection, United Kingdom (acquired from the above)
• References:
  This shield appears as an illustration on page 1114 in volume 3 of the Pitt-Rivers catalogue and was originally dispayed at the Farnham Museum in Room no. 9 and within case no. 116.
• Notes:
  One of the key ways that Pitt-Rivers documented his collections after 1880 was to list all of his acquisitions in the catalogue, which is now held by the Cambridge University Library. Though the information varied a little over time, he almost always caused to be recorded the person or institution from which he had obtained the object, a short description and drawing, the price, and its location. In this he was in line with (or ahead of) contemporary museum practice. In addition he caused many objects to be written upon with basic information, and it seems that often the page number of the relevant catalogue volume was also added. This information was often written on the backs of objects, or in their interior if it was accessible. In other cases some information was written onto the base of the object (if it was suitable to have a base, and had a permanent base fitted). In 'Provenance', Hermoine Waterfield writes that: 'Harold St George Gray was more involved with the museum and its acquisitions. He organised the typical wooden stands, painted grey or black and lettered with black or yellow respectively, used for exhibits: many of the artefacts had their descriptions, provenance and relevant dates similarly painted in neat capitals on the object rather than on a label.' (Waterfield, 2006: 464) This sort of information can be used to search the catalogue either manually (as in the past) or now by searching the computerised catalogue of the second collection and looking in the research field.....Note that objects often had written information on the back and display information on the base.1 Another example of object known to have been similarly documented is: "Carved wood pipe, Lake Albert Nyanza district, Bt of Fenton May 21-91 p. 738" 1 Extract from, "Rethinking Pitt-Rivers", Cambridge University Library
• Estimate:
  A$30,000 - 50,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Tribal

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.