Find Lots

• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  64
• Lot Description:
  A Rare Collection of Eight Ceremonial Shields
  Sandover, Northern Territory (mid twentieth century)
  carved wood and natural earth pigments
  70.5 cm; 74.5 cm; 70 cm; 67 cm; 78 cm; 73.5 cm; 77.5 cm; 68.7 cm high (8)
• Provenance:
  'Taffy' Richard Henry Pick (1907-2000), Northern Territory (1959); Private Collection, Alice Springs; An Important Private Collection (acquired from the above)
• Notes:
  Taffy was gifted this group of shields days after a group of Aboriginal men from the Kimberley had returned to Western Australia. The men had come from WA to Alice Springs to perform ceremonies that lasted about 10 days and these shields were used in that ceremony and then left behind. It was customary in the 1950s-1960s for indigenous Australians to journey to the Northern Territory from Western Australia to attend ceremonial dances known as corroborees. According to tradition, the aborigines would leave a gift before returning to their native lands. A set of eight ceremonial shields of oblong shape with deep cut handles, each featuring a design painted in white clay on the face. The designs relate mainly to Water Dreamings. Three shields bear a design struck along a central meander, to either side of which are pairs of parallel bars that form an iconograph in the central and western deserts commonly associated with freshwater, rivers, rain and clouds. One shield features a characteristic place and journey design from the desert: three sets of concentric circles are joined by parallel meandering lines. Two shields bear a chevron or zigzag motif that echoes the designs found on wunda shields and shields from the Kimberley region. And two shields bear a loose lock-and-key motif that relates to similar motifs found on shields at La Grange in the lands of the Karajarri south of the western Kimberley region; see for example that in the collection of the Museum of Victoria, illustrated in Cooper, C. et al., Aboriginal Australia, Sydney: Australian Gallery Directors Council, 1981, p.122, plate D158. Similar or related designs are also engraved into pearl shell (riji and jakoli) emanating from the Broome area. The shields were collected by ÔTaffy' Richard Henry Pick in or before 1959. In the 1930s Pick worked on the Arltunga Goldfield about 100 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, in the vicinity of the Sandover River. Pick served in the army during World War II and became a prisoner of war but returned to Alice Springs after the war and established his own farm at Casino Crossing on the Todd River. Wally Caruana
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

  Can't see the realised price? Upgrade your subscription now!

• Category:
  Tribal

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