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Three Early Carved Boab Nuts, Pre 1929 decorated with plants,…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Sydney
Date:
7-Dec-2008
Lot No.
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Description:
Three Early Carved Boab Nuts, Pre 1929 decorated with plants, birds and crocodiles, two retaining catalogue labels. Provenance: George Wright Collection -1929 Unkown Collection 1929-1998 John Freeland Collection 1998- The Boab Tree, related to the East African Baobabs, is restricted to an area from the Kimberly through to the Victoria River Basin in the Northern Territory. As in Africa, it is the source of a wide range of products ranging from the young tuba like tap root of juvenile trees which is eaten, to the use of root fibres for spinning cord and the carving and painting of the tree dried nuts. The decorating and carving of boab nuts is an art form unique to the Kimberly with the first specimens being collected in the 1870s, In 1897 the biologist Saville-Kent noted that boab nuts were engraved with rectangular designs similar to those found on wooden and pearly shell artifacts from the region. In the same year images of carved nuts were published. The earliest nuts were carved with geometric maze-like designs and occasionally abstracted flora but, most rarely, figurative motifs were carved with strong resonance to Kimberly Rock Art. By the early twentieth century much more naturalistic depictions of native flora and fauna became dominant and from time to time images of daily life were seen. The rarest decorations were those depicting the black-white conflict and of Aboriginal and prisoners in chains. Some years ago a major collection of examples from the 1950s and 1960s was assembled with extensive documentation by John McCaffrey. Many of the nuts were carved by Jack Wherra who drew on his own life history as well as both secular and ritual knowledge for his work. More can be gleaned from the seminal work Decorated Boab Nuts, from Rock Wall to Shop Shelf, Michele Lang. Little is actually known in relation to the George Wright Collection. There is a reference to a George Wright Memorial Shelter for Indigenous Australians in Melbourne but, these three boab nuts represent the earliest known examples ever to go under the hammer and as such, are central to us gaining a better understanding of this beautiful art form. Shapiro would like to thank John Freeland for his assistance in cataloguing and researching this lot.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified