Ethnographica & Tribal Art

This 4ft (1.2m) long Tongan Aku-Tau ironwood war club will feature in a sale of Militaria and Ethnographica to be held by Tennants in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on September 4.

Pictured below are three lots of Oceanic art that proved to be in much demand during UK sales held in August.

Organisers of the Parcours des Mondes decided to go ahead with this edition instead of heading online – but only after careful deliberation

Included in the African section of the African and Oceanic Art and Antiquities auction to be held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on September 16, this 10in (25cm) high Lega mask is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This beaded hide Sioux Elk Dreamers’ Society tobacco bag is one of the pieces of beadwork from the Robert Jerich collection that is included in Cowan’s September 18 American Indian Art auction in Cincinnati.

A number of single-owner collections feature in Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury’s September 22 Tribal Art and Antiquities auction. These include the Michael G Johnson collection which makes up over 100 lots in the North American section.

One of the highest prices in the large 650-plus lot American Indian and Ethnographic Arts auction held by Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Massachusetts was the $4000 (£3075) paid against a $400-600 guide for a trio of Eskimo baskets woven from baleen.

Two 19th century ‘prestige’ knives from southern Africa attracted unexpected levels of bidding at Grand Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Folkestone. Estimated at just £40-80 each, they made a combined £9200.

Pictured here is one of two 19th century or earlier Maori greenstone 'mere' offered at a recent sale held by Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) in Colchester.

A ceremonial woman’s apron from Geelvink Bay, West Papua, Indonesia, is one of the highlights in a new event staged by Tribal Art London (TAL).

The highlight of Morphy Auctions’ (23% buyer’s premium) sale of historical militaria from the independence struggle and War of 1812 era was a rare and extensively provenanced presentation pipe tomahawk.

Tribal Art London has hired a new director to organise and lead the fair.

Outside Paris auctions have also started up as lockdown eases.

An album of 12 early watercolour drawings of Australian Aborigines made a surprising £72,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Forum Auctions in London.

This unpublished carved wooden statuette from the Senufo peoples of south-east Mali, west Africa, is to be offered in a 154-lot sale of Tribal Art to be held on May 26 by Ader in its Paris, rue Favart rooms in collaboration with the Euvrard Fabre auction house.

Works by artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864- 1946), were the chief focus of a sale held by Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) in New York.

Several surprises emerged in the tribal art sale held by Cologne auction house Lempertz (24% buyer’s premium) in a recent sale held in Brussels.

In 1914 Western interest in African art was in its infancy. When these two wooden anthropomorphic spoons were shown as part of an exhibition of African wood statuary at the photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery in that year it represented a key moment.