How much is that doggy in the window….? The two rare mini-dogs are in today’s Fresh Stock, the others already in stock. Quite a pack of poodles!
New ‘Artists in Stock‘ Page
Artists In Stock
NEW! Introducing our New Page, ‘Artists in Stock’. Here you can browse through an alphabetical listing of Artists, grouped by Period & Country, to find any of interest. Clicking their name will bring up all works by that artist.
<- click the image to go to the page
Christmas is Coming…..
The year is nearly over, and that means it’s time to think about Christmas. At Moorabool, we have a vast selection of potential Christmas Presents for you to browse……
Why not get in early and let us post them to you?
Our cut-off dates for Australian Post items is: WA -15th Dec NT 14th Dec VIC, NSW & QLD 18th Dec
International – last week of November – 1st week December.
A remarkable piece in today’s release is an example of ‘pokerwork’. It was a simple process, where a tip of iron was heated in the flame of a kerosene lamp, and the red hot metal used to make charred impressions into raw wood. Woodstain colours could then be used to enhance the design. This late Victorian craze continued into the early 20th century in Australia, usually involving gum leaves and wattle with e occasional koala or kangaroo. This example is very different, with remarkable Celtic designs, a pair of dragons, and four heraldic shields entwined within the leaves of the two knot work ‘trees’ that rise up the centre. The leaves on the trees are shamrocks, and the shields represent the four realms of Ireland, Munster, Ulster, Leinster, and Connacht… this is clearly an Irish creation. A little internet sleuthing, and a fascinating little-known Arts & Crafts workshop that specialised in pokerwork, the Belfast School of Pokerwork. Examples are rarely seen, but the Irish nature of their products are unmistakable.
Munster, Ulster, Leinster, and Connacht
An example from the Belfast School of Pokerwork.
The Belfast School of Pokerwork was run by Mina Robinson, who along with Eta Lowry founded the Irish Decorative Arts Association of Belfast around 1894. The ‘School of Pokerwork’ was a part of this association, and at one stage there were 12 women working on the products they sold.
A mirror with this same Celtic knot work incorporating beasts was sold by Roseberys, London, in 2020 (3/11/20, lot 26) , bearing the label of William Rodman & Co. They were framers & mounters of pictures, their premises described as an ‘Artist’s Materials Warehouse’ and ‘Dealers in Works of Art’.
Rosebery’s Mirror
That work is very close to documented examples of Eva McKee’s work, as is this piece. However, it seems Mina Robinson and Eta Lowry were also poker-workers, and their styles may be indistinguishable.
Many larger examples of Celtic pokerwork frames were made at the Belfast School of Pokerwork, which featured female artisans. It is recorded that in 1904 almost all of (famous Irish artist) Percy French’s paintings were exhibited with pokerwork frames decorated by the Association, at its annual summer show in Portrush, Co. Antrim.
An exquisite ‘Zogan’ box is another superb item Fresh to Stock. The main body is iron, the black a patinated layer made using tea amongst other things. The fine inlay work is 2-tones of gold and some silver. It’s marked inside with a double-peaked ‘Mt Fuji’, standing for Fujii Yoshitoyo’s workshop in Kyoto – the double peaks relating to his name having double ‘i’s.
Fujii Zogan mark
Here’s the rest of our ‘Fresh Stock’ for this week.
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Christmas is Coming…..
43 Days until Christmas!
The year is nearly over, and that means it’s time to think about Christmas. At Moorabool, we have a vast selection of potential Christmas Presents for you to browse……
Why not get in early and let us post them to you?
Our cut-off dates for Australian Post items is: WA -15th Dec NT 14th Dec VIC, NSW & QLD 18th Dec
International – last week of November – 1st week December.
This amazing piece of Georgian Sterling is a rare toast rack, made by Mathew Boulton. He was one of the great minds of the Industrial Revolution, responsible for endless inventions, and the first mass produced steam engine, the Boulton & Watt. As a silversmith, he petitioned Parliament for an assay office to be opened up in Sheffield, which had become a major production centre for silversmiths by the latter 18th century. Previously, they had to travel all the way to London or Chester to have their Sterling goods assayed & marked – but in 1773, the Birmingham assay office opened, with Boulton as the main patron. This remarkable simple toast rack is a classic design from Boulton – simple in construction, with no unnecessary decoration, it is almost modernistic in design – certainly a good example of ‘form follows function’. And still very usable!
A good selection of English Sterling Silver Jugs, Georgian & Victorian, FRESH to stock @ Moorabool Antiques, Geelong
Amongst the silver are a lovely series of jugs. Several are 18th century, several 19th century – but one is a ‘naughty’ piece. While it looks 18th century, it was made 100 years later – but hallmarked for 1797. It’s the product of an interesting group of ‘Silver Frauds’, created by a silversmith and exposed as fraudulently marked with ‘antique’ hallmarks in 1899. This particular jug is a good example of the mistake they made: the day letter for 1797 isn’t compatible with the maker’s mark, which only appears in the 1840’s!
Welcome to the latest Fresh Stock release on Moorabool.com. This week along with some lovely 19th century porcelain including Coalport, Spode, Ridgway and others
For all our local customers…. there’s an event this weekend, at the National Trust property in Geelong, ‘The Heights’. There’s a lot going on, a busy schedule of entertainment for the two days of this coming weekend. Paul gives a talk on French Culture Saturday afternoon, and we have the privilege of setting up a series of French Displays within the house, part of taking a ‘house tour’ while there.
As well, we have taken on the ‘Dovecot’, a gorgeous Victorian outbuilding that has a flower garden flourishing in its forecourt; imagine this with antiques strewn through…. starting at $5!
Welcome to the latest Fresh Stock release on Moorabool.com. This week you will find a good selection of collector’s Pottery, including the rare ‘Pope & Devil’ stirrup cup seen here. This is a drinking vessel, used while on horseback to have a drop of something before going on the hunt – you had to swig the whole thing as the cup cannot be put down until empty. When full, the face seen is the ‘Devil’ – when empty, the ‘Pope’ in his crown! It’s an early 19th century Pratt-type pottery example, and in superb condition.
The characters seen at the start of this page are interesting French pottery, which we have attributed to the Choisy-le-Roi factory, 1870’s. The boy is something we have never seen before – designed to go in the upper corner of a room, it has mounting points to hang it off the ceiling – serving no purpose other than decoration.
There’s also some rather special Chinese pieces to be seen from several local collections.
Some particularly interesting items are released in our pottery today. The ‘Clarice Cliff’ cup & saucer is an iconic example of Art Deco, from the very first years of this ‘Bizarre’ line of products, and has a fascinating ‘adapted’ mark, meant for 2 other patterns, but partly cut off before being applied. The saucer was also previously a plain ‘Honeyglaze’ piece, according to the mark still visible beneath- repurposed by Clarice & her band of merry painters for the mad-modern Art Deco designs they became fabled for.
The Pratt printed bottle (the later ‘Pratt’, not to be confused with the earlier Pratt ‘Pope & Devil’ above) is a rarity, as it retains the original metal stopper – advertising it’s contents, which we otherwise have to guess at. This bottle was used by Blanchflower & Co of Greater Yarmouth to hold their ‘bloater fish paste’…. made from salted, smoked herrings called “bloaters”, which are smoked whole with the insides still in them. The result is a more ‘gamey’ flavour than cleaned herrings! Fortunately used up long ago, the tin lid & cork are rare survivors, and illustrate the exact contents of these interesting early examples of recyclable packaging from the Victorian era.
This remarkable solid-silver teaset is unsurprisingly Chinese. Each piece has a magnificent dragon embossed on it, with the long body wrapped all around until it almost catches its own tail…. It is the creation of Shanghai’s finest silversmith of the late Qing Dynasty, Tuck Chang. His pieces – or more precisely, the products of his busy workshop, were sold in colonial Shanghai, but also exported and in the best department stores in New York, London – and Melbourne.
Geldermalsen – ‘Nankin Cargo’ – Shipwreck Ceramics, Chinese c.1750
Qinglong porcelain c.1750 – Guaranteed!
These Chinese porcelain items were recovered from a shipwreck in the South China Sea in the 1980’s. Shipwrecks are always important in the ceramics world, as they act as time capsules material culture for the date the ship sank. While metal and wood will perish with time, ceramics are extremely durable. These pieces are sometimes in exceptional condition despite being under the sea for over 200 years. What makes these Chinese Porcelain pieces particularly desirable is their context: the Dutch ship Geldermalsen sank in 1752, and the items were recovered by a professional team; therefore, in the present-day world of Chinese Ceramics, where the fakes have become harder to spot, they are corner-pieces in a collection, being absolutely Guaranteed Genuine. Moorabool has a sample of these in their ceramics reference library to use for education and study: directly comparing a piece from a known wreck to a piece of uncertain provenance can be invaluable during our researching. They are essential for our dating of Chinese Ceramics, and while condition is usually important for a collector, the authenticity of these pieces and the way this can help verify other pieces is invaluable, far outweighing any condition concerns….
Moorabool has a collection of quality 18th century British Porcelain – including Derby, Chelsea, Isleworth, and this selection of Beautiful Bow. Currently being catalogued, it will be out in the next few weeks as a special ‘Fresh Stock’.
We have a treat for our local customers: a weekend of French food & fun, hosted at Geelong’s beautiful National Trust property, ‘The Heights’. Moorabool is opening a genuine ‘Brocante’ – we have taken the charming Dovecote in the garden, and will have it stuffed full of interesting items to buy.
As well, Paul Rosenberg will be giving a lecture, ‘Trés Français’, taking a small audience through the wonderful influence France has had on our culture. This takes place inside the house, spaces strictly limited, so head to lefestivalfrancais.com.au if you would like to come.
Paul’s talk will be at 3pm on Saturday 28th October. Bookings essential!
Note: the funds from entry etc. go towards the actual property, a terrific fundraiser for this treasured local property.
The house will also be opening for guided tours throughout the weekend: we’re excited to be involved with this also, and Moorabool has been asked to ‘dress’ the rooms in a French theme.
Vite! …and apologies to those who live too far away: we’ll post some photos …..
Welcome to the latest Fresh Stock release on Moorabool.com. This week has seen a wide variety of quality pieces entering our stock – including a Scottish ‘Dancing Sword’, Indian bronze ‘toys’, and a Glaring of Cats!
….who killed bunny?!! mostly English Pottery cats, the red rabbit is Royal Doulton Flambe.
There’s some rather special pieces to be seen – be sure to check out the ‘Curated Collections’ through the links below.
Ach Aye… we have a bonnie wee bit o’ Scottish paraphernalia today.
Scottish ‘Dancing Sword’ – Macmillan Clan
Won for ‘Shean Truis’ dance, South Morang, 29th Jan 1951.
Most of these items are from a local source – ‘Lady M. Macmillan’, who won the Australian Sterling Silver awards for her Highland Dancing in the 1950’s! The magnificent Scottish basket-hilted sword was her ‘Dancing Sword’, and bears her initials. The Scottish ‘sword dance’ required two of these, which were placed crossed at right angles, forming four quarters: it was the moving into & out of these quarters that made up this unique Scottish ‘Sword Dance’. She won these in various regional Victorian Highland Dancing events, and seems to have favoured the ‘Highland Fling’.
We now have a Curated Collection for our Scottish pieces. Check it out here>
Visit the Scottish Collection
Curated Collection: Indian Antiques
Indian- Nepalese bronze Sukunda oil lamp
We have some interesting additions to our Anglo-Indian ‘Curated Collection’ today, featuring a selection of bronze pieces.
This fascinating piece is almost Baroque in style. It is a ‘Sukunda‘ lamp, and has a seven-headed cobra on the handle enclosing the image of a diety.
Sukunda lamps are indigenous to the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley and play an important role in most rituals, including birth, marriage and death rituals.
The body of the vessel holds the oil; this is ladled out and placed into the rectangular dish at the front, which holds the wick of the lamp.
Indian Bronze ‘toys’, although they probably also had a ritual significance. 19th century
We have a treat for our local customers: a weekend of French food & fun, hosted at Geelong’s beautiful National Trust property, ‘The Heights’. Moorabool is opening a genuine ‘Brocante’ – we have taken the charming Dovecote in the garden, and will have it stuffed full of interesting items to buy.
As well, Paul Rosenberg will be giving a lecture, ‘Trés Français’, taking a small audience through the wonderful influence France has had on our culture. This takes place inside the house, spaces strictly limited, so head to lefestivalfrancais.com.au if you would like to come.
Paul’s talk will be at 3pm on Saturday 28th October. Bookings essential!
Note: the funds from entry etc. go towards the actual property, a terrific fundraiser for this treasured local property.
The house will also be opening for guided tours throughout the weekend: we’re excited to be involved with this also, and Moorabool has been asked to ‘dress’ the rooms in a French theme.
Vite! …and apologies to those who live too far away: we’ll post some photos …..
Welcome to the latest Fresh Stock release on Moorabool.com. This week has seen a wide variety of quality pieces entering our stock lists, from stunning Chinese Silver to a election of usable Victorian glass.
There’s even some cheerful Staffordshire at very tempting prices!
This superb quality 18th century figure is remarkable for its condition. Apollo stands, lyre in hand, laurel wreath on his head – and somehow, he has made it through 240 years with only a very slight chip up underneath the plinth.
Australiana
Moorabool has a good selection of ‘Australiana’ to offer, fresh to the market in 2023. From fine art to furniture, there’s a ‘Curated Collection’ of quality pieces for you to browse.
An interesting group consists of a watercolour and two etchings, signed ‘G.Cope’. When we look up this name, there is an American artist of the right period – but why are they mainly Australian scenes with the occasional Egyptian and English scene mixed in?
Ernest E. Abbott (1888-1973) signed G Cope – Captain Cook’s Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, 1934-39
It turns out ‘George Cope’ was an alias, used by English/Australian artist Ernest Edwin Abbott (1888-1973). Born in 1888 at Bideford, Devon, he came to Australia and trained as a sign writer in Western Australia. In 1917 he opened a studio in Melbourne. He seems to have completely given up on art in around 1939- the beginning of WWII. The last 30 years of his life don’t seem to have any artistic products; he ran a machine workshop instead.
Subjects are mainly Australian scenery, but he also did English and Egyptian scenes. This suggests trips back to England via the Suez Canal, with a stop over to paint & sketch.
George Cope /Ernest E. Abbott….. Pharaoh’s Tomb, circa 1925
In the case of our Arab watercolour, the tomb is not an ancient Egyptian tomb as the title suggests, but a typical Arab whitewashed tomb complex of a much later date: perhaps the local tradition was that it was the tomb of a Pharaoh, which suggests he was there in-person to paint it. Other watercolours show ancient Egyptian temples in great detail, which support the ‘on-site’ idea, rather than an imaginative scene done in a Melbourne studio.
Online art records are full of discrepancies when it comes to Cope-signed etchings: it seems the American artist George Cope (1855-1929) has been mistaken for this ‘alias’, but a check of the American’s artworks reveals they are very different in nature – and never Australian subjects. The mystery is why E.E. Abbott took that exact name….. and why he was never publicly acknowledged, or exhibited, like his contemporaries such as Baldwinson and Victor Cobb. There’s more to be discovered about the mysterious George Cope /Ernest E. Abbott…..
Clifford Dudley-Wood’s portrait of RAAF officer Peter Napier Munro, 1945
This portrait by Clifford Dudley Wood (1905-1980) dates to his war-time military service: although he was not designated an official ‘War Artist’, he did produce a number of works & portraits recording his experience. Being handy with a paint brush, he was actually in the ‘Camouflage Brigade’, responsible for the confusing patterns to preserve allied military equipment!
This portrait shows a NCO Sargent, who judging by his brevet – the badge with ‘AG’ and a wing on his shirt – was an air-gunner in the Australian Airforce. He had the tough job of keeping the enemy aircraft at bay with his guns, and was therefore a primary target for them, and the highest-risk category in the force…. a little poking around in the War Memorial records, and we have his details and an amazing photograph! He was WO Peter N. Munro, from Orange.
1918 S4C propellor, WWI
The artist, Clifford Dudley Wood, was born in Geelong, studied art & design at Swinburne Technical College in Melbourne in the early 1920s, and exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society. He was twice a finalist for the coveted Archibald Prize. During the Great Depression, he made a living from commercial art, being responsible for many magazine adverts and iconographic adverts. At the same time, he began exhibiting his own artwork.
During World War Two, he was stationed on RAAF bases, and they utilised his ‘skills with a paintbrush….’ for creating camouflage! It is apparent that he also had time for private commissions: this portrait is one of a group of ‘men in uniform’ by Dudley-Wood.
We have a treat for our local customers: a weekend of French food & fun, hosted at Geelong’s beautiful National Trust property, ‘The Heights’. Moorabool is opening a genuine ‘Brocante’ – we have taken the charming Dovecote in the garden, and will have it stuffed full of interesting items to buy.
As well, Paul Rosenberg will be giving a lecture, ‘Trés Français’, taking a small audience through the wonderful influence France has had on our culture. This takes place inside the house, spaces strictly limited, so head to lefestivalfrancais.com.au if you would like to come.
Note: the funds from entry etc. go towards the actual property, a terrific fundraiser for this treasured local property.
The house will also be opening for guided tours throughout the weekend: we’re excited to be involved with this also, and Moorabool has been asked to ‘dress’ the rooms in a French theme.
Vite! …and apologies to those who live too far away: we’ll post some photos …..
Welcome to the latest Fresh Stock release on Moorabool.com. This week has seen a wide variety of quality pieces entering our stock lists, from a terrific selection of Worcester Porcelain, to a range of quality Chinese items, Indian & Colonial items, and Australiana items.
There’s some rather special pieces to be seen – be sure to check out the ‘Curated Collections’ through the links below.
Ali Bahadur II (1832-73) by Emily Eden
This beautiful hand-coloured lithograph of an Indian Prince is a rarity. It is one of 28 plates from a private publication of 1844, created for the remarkable Emily Eden, using her sketches she did while India in the 1830’s. Her brother was governor at the time, and she wrote – and sketched – extensively. Queen Victoria was a friend, and a copy of the publication is still in the Royal Collection: no doubt her interest in India was encouraged by Emily’s accounts and illustrations. While a number of monotone examples were published, the coloured version is regarded as a great rarity, with only a handful finished like this: we have two examples to offer.
The two portraits shown here are some of our exciting recent Australiana discoveries. They are husband & wife, titled ‘Sir Henry Parkes’ & ‘Lady Parkes as young girl’. The question is, which ‘Lady Parkes’ is it? Sir Henry is of course identified by the inscription to his mount – or is he…..
There’s a lot to the story of the above two influential Australians….. read more on our blog post.
We have a treat for our local customers: a weekend of French food & fun, hosted at Geelong’s beautiful National Trust property, ‘The Heights’. Moorabool is opening a genuine ‘Brocante’ – we have taken the charming Dovecote in the garden, and will have it stuffed full of interesting items to buy.
As well, Paul Rosenberg will be giving a lecture, ‘Trés Français’, taking a small audience through the wonderful influence France has had on our culture. This takes place inside the house, spaces strictly limited, so head to lefestivalfrancais.com.au if you would like to come.
Note: the funds from entry etc. go towards the actual property, a terrific fundraiser for this treasured local property.
The house will also be opening for guided tours throughout the weekend: we’re excited to be involved with this also, and Moorabool has been asked to ‘dress’ the rooms in a French theme.
Vite! …and apologies to those who live too far away: we’ll post some photos …..
The Pacific Ocean is a large part of the surface of the planet – and it was almost entirely populated by mankind, thanks to the ingenuity of the navigators and ship-builders. Early European explorers were surprised to find flourishing cultures in remote corners of the Pacific, and greatly admired their watercraft. We have some fascinating models of these vessels at Moorabool.
Tonga was explored by Cook in 1774, and named ‘The Friendly Isles’ due to his positive experience there. We have a series of interesting items relating to Tonga, from charts & images produced for the ‘Cook’s Voyages’ volumes printed in the 18th century, to a remarkable cloth map that includes the Captain Cook sites of significance, and the areas where oil was discovered in the 1960’s! For several decades, it looked like an oil rush was about to take place around Tonga, when at least one rich oilfield with millions of barrels potential was found. Today, this is almost forgotten – and Tonga is among the Pacific nations trying to curb the world’s reliance on oil, due to the potentially disastrous affect a rise in sea levels would cause. The ‘Oil Chart’ is a historic irony!
An exotic collection of ‘Tribal’ has just been launched on Moorabool.com – from Australian Aboriginal, to our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, and far beyond to the Pacific nations and African cultures, there’s quite a number of interesting ‘tribal’ items to browse.
New Caledonia Carved Tribal Figures
Tribal art is important, as while the West became more sophisticated, it remained the same – simple forms, compelling story-telling through highly stylised illustrations in carving and paint. For this reason, the ‘Modernists’, those artists who dragged the Western World into the modern aesthetic, sought out primitive art for its honest truth and pure, basic forms.
Matisse, Gauguin, and Picasso all collected, and were influenced by art & objects from Africa, South America, and the Pacific. In the 19th century, it had been collected as ‘curios’: in the early 20th century, it was seen as an important aspect of the human art-scape, where tribal people had created pure forms unencumbered by the baggage of the Classical (Greek & Roman) world.
Today, this theme is still very much alive – but it has transformed to something new, with modern artists from the First Nations of a multitude of countries now exploring their own heritage, and merging it with the 21st century.
It certainly makes the world a much more graphically interesting – and colourful – place!
Moorabool’s Tribal
Australia is a terrific source for tribal art. When Europeans first came, they were eager to explore the culture that was already here. Collections were formed – many pieces were shipped overseas – even as the catastrophical encroachment of Western culture destroyed the peoples who had created them. The misfortune of colonisation cannot be overstated- but looking back, it was the Europeans who were fascinated by the Aboriginal People who preserved not only the languages in some areas, but also no end of artefacts which they gathered for their collections. Today, these items are often the only surviving link to long-lost Koori culture that goes back tens of thousands of years.
Elsewhere, the travelling Westerners collected also, and often settled in Australia. As the main British presence in the region, Sydney and Melbourne were the access point for the governing of areas such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea. During WWII, this became particularly important as troops moved into the islands north and east of Australia to deflect the planned Japanese take-over. The soldiers on these expeditions often became very involved in the local situations, and numerous examples of soldiers stationed in New Guinea staying on after the war for decades occur: one of the sources for our present collection was a photographer in WWII for the RAAF, and stayed on in a government role, marrying a PNG local and living there for the next 30 years.
Captain Cook
These prints are dramatic records of the British exploration of the Pacific in the 18th century – ‘CNN reporting live from the South Pacific’. They were published by numerous firms in London, and later in France, for many decades, in various sizes.
Australian Aboriginal culture, or as it is now popularly called ‘First Nation’, is the oldest continual culture on the planet. Early European contact was dismissive of their achievements, but we now see just how impressive it is for a culture to survive that period of time in an environment Europeans could not survive in for long. We do see a large amount of Australian Aboriginal artifacts at Moorabool – the largest being the ‘woomera’ shown below. This is a prime example of their superior survival skills and technical innovation: a woomera is a spear-thrower, basically a long leaver-extension for a hunting spear. When used to launch a spear, it resulted in an incredible 60% extra force and massive increase in distance. This particular example, at 2.66 meters, is the longest we have seen, and is an original usable piece made without European tools or materials.
The Trobiand Islands are part of the Solomon Island group, to the north-east of Papua New Guinea. They were the origin of a remarkable style of tribal art, with very stylised, elegant scrolling forms, often in shallow carved format filled with lime pigment to make them stand out.
A Trobian Islands Canoe Board
Impressive carved & painted canoe board, with symmetric-carved columns & scrolls, pierced & layered for dramatic effect, incorporating a small seated figure at the very top, the whole picked out in traditional white & red colours.
Solomon Islands/ Trobiand Islands – Milne Bay
earlier 20th century
Provenance: from a Melbourne, Australia, collection
The same iconography can be seen on an example in the British Museum –
These canoe boards were used by the communities of the Solomon Islands, in particular those of the Trobiand Islands, where the vast Milne Bay region supported a flourishing trade network connected by large trading canoes. When voyages of trade were made, they were festival occasions, and both the crew and the canoe was ‘dressed to impress’. These extremely elaborate boards (also known as ‘splashboards’) were placed at the front & back of the dugout canoes, closing off the ends & helping keep water out. They are called ‘migila waga’, roughly translating as ‘the face of the canoe’.
An excellent eyewitness image can be found in the work of the Royal Geographical Society fellow Ellis Silas. He travelled through the region in the 1920’s and sketched numerous examples of the elaborate canoe decorations, now in the British Museum collection.
Early 1920’s sketch by Ellis Silas showing a Trobiand canoe with splashboard in place. British Museum.
The carvings are all meaningful: the seated figure in the centre of this board in particular appears consistently. This is the most important aspect of the piece: known as the bwalai, it must be ‘spelled’ with the right magic by the canoe owner prior to a journey. If the canoe capsizes, the bwalai comes to the rescue by summoning a giant fish that will take the sailors safely ashore. If the magic used is not correct or if the canoe owner forgets to utter the spell, the bwalai will turn into sharks and sea monsters and devour the crew!
The trade ritual was known as the ‘Kula‘, and was different from the commercial trade for goods. The items exchanged were ‘non-use’ decorations, solely to enhance one’s social status. The act of giving was a display of greatness, but given with a show of exaggerated modesty; the goods also had to be passed on within a short period of time, and as they passed through the circle of participants, it is known as the ‘Kula Ring’. It incorporated a large number of wide-spread island communities to the north and east of, including the Massim of the Trobiand Islands. Goods traded were pearlshell plaques, armbands, necklaces, and other distinct items.
Massim Wealth Axe Head
The large polished adze heads are another aspect of Kula trade. These are extremely robust, and the dense mottled green stone must have taken a huge effort to polish and shape. They were highly treasured items of wealth & status, and while we have dated ours to ’19th century’, it is quite plausible that they are many centuries older, passed from generation to generation. The example with the chips shows an amount of wear to the chip-sites, which can only happen through lots of handling – suggesting a very great age.
This large model of a War Canoe from the Solomon Islands is quite dramatic. When the Royals Kate & William visited in 2014, they were treated to a ride in one, as shown below.
Solomon Islands Tomako War Canoe model (mocked-up photo of it afloat!)
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Davenport etruscan shape jug, Rosehead pattern, C. 1815$380.00 AUD
Derby figure of a girl with a basket of flowers on a rococo base, C. 1780$590.00 AUD
Derby figure of a boy, standing holding a basket of flowers C. 1785$490.00 AUD
Derby figure of a boy with flower basket, C. 1765$460.00 AUD
Bow figure of a boy with flowers, low plain base, c. 1760$580.00 AUD
Derby figure of a boy, standing holding a basket of flowers C 1785$390.00 AUD
Derby figure of a boy with flower basket, C. 1775$390.00 AUD
Victorian burr walnut writing box, C 1870$460.00 AUD
Victorian mahogany writing box C.1870$540.00 AUD
Rare miniature Staffordshire Porcelain poodle, 28mm high, c. 1830$565.00 AUD
Staffordshire Porcelain poodle on pink cushion, c. 1830Sold
Staffordshire Porcelain spill group with poodle + tree trunks, attr. Alcock, c. 1835$295.00 AUD
Sterling Silver fork, Stag crest, Hayne & Cater , London 1860$85.00 AUD
Sterling Silver fork, Stag crest, Hayne & Cater , London 1860$140.00 AUD
Jean-Léon Gérôme, gilt bronze nude, ‘La Joueuse de Boules’ c.1905Sold
Large French terracotta figural group, ‘stone’ finish, Early 20th C$1,450.00 AUD
French glass desk set, box form with applied flowers, C. 1800$980.00 AUD
George III mahogany washstand, open top, C. 1785$750.00 AUD
Glass box with sterling silver lid, London, 1905$95.00 AUD
Victorian octagonal silver christening mug, Birmingham 1865.Sold
Close Plated tea caddy, probably French, C. 1800$340.00 AUD
Derby drum-shape inkwell with Imari pattern, c. 1810Sold
Early Minton coffee can, rich Imari Pattern no. 614, circa 1805Sold
Derby Imari pattern coffee can, circa 1810Sold
Spode Imari teacup + saucer, pattern 1220, circa 1815Sold
Spode Imari ‘Dollar tree’ teacup + saucer ‘dollar tree’ pattern, c. 1810Sold
