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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  21 Jul 2015 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  156
• Lot Description:
  An Important Collection of Artefacts
  Fraser Island, Queensland (early nineteenth century)
  carved hardwood
  62 cm; 61 cm; 58 cm; 75 cm; 80 cm; 65 cm and 43 cm long (7)
• Provenance:
  Nambo and Pulka, Fraser Island, Queensland; William Tottenham, Big Woody Island, Queensland(collected between 1868 and 1900); Charles and Annie Tottenham, Queensland; Gert Wockner, Queensland (daughter of Charles and Annie Tottenham); Brian Wockner, Queensland (grandson of Gert Wockner); By descent; Private Collection, Queensland
• Notes:
  A rare, early and well provenance collection of a man's weaponry, this collection of artefacts that comprises three boomerangs, three clubs and a shield, is said to have been owned originally by a Butchulla (Badtjala) husband and wife, known as Nambo and Pulka who lived on K'gari or Thoorgine (Fraser Island in Hervey Bay, Queensland) in the latter decades of the nineteenth century and early into the twentieth. A copy of a photograph of the couple is included in this lot. The collection of artefacts, of Butchulla origin, were gifted to William G. Tottenham (1929-1911), the second lighthouse keeper of the Middle Bluff lighthouse on Big Woody Island, in the Hervey Bay/Maryborough district, as a sign of friendship, during his tenure between March 1868 and October 1900. William Tottenham and his third son Charles (1871-1947), and their respective wives Mary and Annie, kept friendly relations with the Aboriginal people who visited Woody Island and are recorded as having won their respect and trust for which they were given gifts of Ôhunting equipment (boomerangs, spears, nullah nullah, shields, etc)' (Tottenham Keeps of the Light: The Middle Bluff Lighthouse Woody Island, draft research paper by William Tottenham's great grandson Joseph P. Tottenham, p.5). Nambo used to assist Charles Tottenham (who took over as the keeper of Middle Bluff lighthouse when William retired in 1900) with yard duties while Pulka was his wife Annie's maid who helped to raise the children and undertook domestic duties. Nambo and Pulka would sail from Fraser Island to Big Woody Island in a canoe with an outrigger attached for stability. The first European to record Big Woody Island was Lt. Matthew Flinders RN when he sailed from Port Jackson to Fraser Island in 1799, on his second voyage to the southern ocean and before his epic circumnavigation of the continent of Australia. With the advent of regular shipping in the Hervey Bay area, lighthouses were built at North Bluff and Middle Bluff on Big Woody Island in 1867, making them among the earliest to have been commissioned by the Queensland government. The artefacts in this collection are carved from hardwood and decorated in engraved and pitted markings in a variety of patterns. The face of the shield bears a roughly symmetrical design that features a line of chevrons at either end, enclosed rectangles, areas of parallel hatching and pitted areas. The overall design and the form of the shield are similar to traditional gulmari shields from southeastern Queensland. The three clubs are also characteristic of the region. They possess different finial forms: one is a flattened ovoid with serrated edges; another has a similar but shorter finial also with serrated edges; the third has a bulbous finial. Each club is decorated in linear hatched and cross-hatched patterns and the latter bears distinctive cross shapes in rows. The decoration on the boomerangs is minimal. Wally Caruana
• Estimate:
  A$20,000 - 30,000
• 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.