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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  121
• Lot Description:
  An Early Broad Shield
  South East Australia (early nineteenth century)
  carved hardwood and natural earth pigments
  69.5 cm high
• Provenance:
  Private Collection, Belgium; Private Collection, Sydney (acquired from above 1990)
• Notes:
  A fine, early and rare broad shield dating from the early nineteenth century of trapezoidal shape tapered at both ends and bearing an incised pattern in two halves, separated by a horizontal line running laterally across the middle of the shield. The design is characteristic of the style of broad shields from south east Australia, from New South Wales and Victoria and particularly from the Lower Murray in South Australia. It consists of irregular bands of parallel undulating and chevron lines that traverse the face of the shield. The shield has been stone carved from the inner bark of a gum tree and heated to form a shallow curvature. The design most likely incised with a possum jaw engraving tool and inlaid with white pigment. Two circular holes either side of the central line held the handle, now missing, that would have been fashioned from a fresh branch and left to dry once inserted into the shield. Similar shields from the Lower Murray River region are illustrated in Cooper, C. et al., Aboriginal Australia, Sydney: Australian Gallery Directors Council, 1981, page 87, plate S42, and page 88, plate S47. The former in the R. E. Johns Collection at the Burke Museum in Beechworth, Victoria, was collected in 1847; the latter is in the Museum of Victoria collection and also dates from the early nineteenth century. Another shield bearing an engraved design that is similarly divided laterally across the middle is in the Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva, Switzerland (BMG 6000-9). Wally Caruana
• Estimate:
  A$50,000 - 70,000
• 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.