Ethnographica & Tribal Art

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

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.

Only a handful of companies have created products with sufficient impact that their brand names become generic descriptions for objects of their type.

The sale of Michel Périnet’s collection of tribal art at Christie’s in Paris on June 23 real ised a remarkable €66m/£57m (including buyer’s premium) and every one of the 61 lots were sold.

The best-performing lots in the tribal art sale at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on June 8 were these two pieces: an Ibibio mask (idiok ekpo) sold at £30,000 and a Nicobar standing male figure (kareau) that brought £34,000.

Exhibition at firm’s new premises focuses on headdress and headwear

Tribal art specialist Zemanek-Münster will be holding a spring auction on April 24 in Würzburg.

Offered by Bryan Reeves of Tribal Gathering for £4200, this Luba baboon mask is one of more than 100 objects on offer at Tribal Art London’s third online event, Spirit Animals.

Two lots from Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Leyburn on September 4. The 17th century Korean leather and steel helmet sold to a South Korean buyer for £4800.

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.

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.

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).

This unpublished carved wooden statuette from the Senufo peoples of south-east Mali, west Africa, is to be offered in a 154-lot sale of Tribal Art to be held on May 26 by Ader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.

Australasia provided the talking points and two main buyers at the recent Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) specialist sale in the Yorkshire Dales.

Having stood at Guernsey airport from 1946-81, the island post box shown below came out of storage in 1988 for presentation to the late politician and lawyer Roger Perrot who died earlier this year.

A tribal war club from the Marquesas Islands with textbook provenance has sold for £71,000 at Woolley & Wallis. The u’u (head club) came for sale at the Salisbury saleroom from the descendants of an early-19th century missionary.