A Broad Shield, South Eastern Australia Early 19th Century

Estimate

25,000 - 35,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Carved and engraved wood (inner bark of the gum tree), bentwood handle
101cm by 20cm

Carved and engraved wood (inner bark of the gum tree), bentwood handle

Provenance

Private Collection, New York
Sotheby’s, African and Oceanic Art, New York, 19 May 2000, lot 125
The Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands

Catalogue Note

Cf. Robert Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria: With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives..., John Ferres Government Printer, Melbourne, 1878, p.333, fig. 137, for a closely related example of similar form, also with an engraved central zig-zag motif surrounded by circles on the perimeter; Australian Gallery Directors Council, Aboriginal Australia, 1989, p.87, p.89, S43, S48-S50, for related examples in the Burke Museum and Museum of Victoria.

Broad Shields were used in battle as spear deflectors and few are in the exceptional condition of this example. Both the fine, stone carved quality of the shield and the stone or animal tooth engraving indicate an early date of manufacture, possibly pre-contact.