Ethnographica & Tribal Art

International array of visitors will be strolling the streets during the Parcours des Mondes to peruse and buy tribal art

Aboriginal shields come in two basic types: broad shields used for deflecting projectiles and the narrow, compact parrying shields used in close contact fighting.

A selection of Oceanic hardwood clubs and shields has come for sale at Sworders in Essex on November 9-10 as part of the auction of objects from the collection of dealer Jan Ellen Finch (1952-2021) of Finch & Co.

The Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas sale at Woolley & Wallis on September 21 includes 270 lots from the collection of tribal and pre-Columbian art assembled by Romy Rey of Richmond, Surrey.

Overseas interest in tribal art and Doulton Lambeth wares fuelled the higher prices at Cuttlestones’ (20% buyer’s premium) Penkridge sale but it was a new outbreak of cardomania which raised temperatures of collectors across England.

Sperm whale teeth, acquired from mammals that had beached on local reefs, had a deep significance to Fijian society.

Among the most extraordinary of all navigational charts are the lattice ‘stick maps’ used by Marshall Islanders.

Carved from the heart of the toa or ironwood tree, long pole clubs with scalloped blades (akatara) are associated with Rarotonga and Atiu on the Cook Islands.

A previously unrecorded family archive relating to Richard Grindall (1751-1820), an able seaman aboard Cook’s Second Voyage, surfaced for sale in London last week with spectacular results.

This wooden Nagaland pipe from north-east India is offered at this month’s Tribal Art Fair online. Available from Shropshire dealership Handbury Tribal Art, it comes from a UK private collection and is priced at €750.

Fang secret society relic comes with long provenance to French colonial governor

A striking and well-provenanced example of an African mask from the Fang peoples of Gabon is to appear at an auction in the south of France on March 26.

A 19th century sea otter amulet in walrus ivory and baleen fashioned as a mother and her pup sold for £24,000 at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium).

“The owner had no idea what they were or what they might be worth. Not a Scooby.”

One of New York’s most prolific antiquities collectors has surrendered 180 ‘looted’ items from his collection and been barred for life from acquiring antiquities again.

Non-European ethnographic art is a one of the new categories at Fine Arts Paris, represented by Patrick and Ondine Mesdagh from Brussels who will be showing a selection of pieces from four continents.

A Maori hei-tiki pendant offered in Cheltenham on September 16 had an old paper label verso stating that it originally belonged to Makoare Te Taonui.

A rare standing figure from the Yuat River area of Papua New Guinea was the star of the show at a Brussels auction.

Dealer and collector Kenn Mackay developed an interest in ethnographic art during his travels in the early 1980s.