African Carved Wooden Medicine Vessel with Seated Figure Lid

Comprising: carved wooden seated nude female with ornate headdress, hands clutching the sides of her bench, inserted studs to the face, back and abdomen, clay-coloured pigment; carved crouching female with extended stomach and breasts resting on the upper face, hands supporting the chin. 3.21 kg, 60 cm high



Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Suffolk, UK, gentleman.

Comprising a squat body on a flared foot. broad shoulder and low neck; all carved with reserved foliage and tendrils; domed lid with two scrolled openwork handles, central knop handle carved as a crouching figure with enlarged head and facial features. 343 grams, 20.4 cm



Acquired on the UK art market since the 1990s. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman; thence by descent.

Paddle-shaped club with carved scroll decoration at the top of the blade. 783 grams, 74.2 cm



From the private collection of Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Australian photographer, filmmaker and adventurer. From the collection of Mr Carlos Bahamonde, Manchester, UK.

The Trobriand Islands are coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. The Massim clubs were both for ceremonial use and fighting, and were decorated with scrolls and abstract snake designs. Some of them were connected to sorcery: when a shaman pointed such a club towards someone, it was a death sentence. Frank Hurley worked on Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917, photographing the Endurance whilst being marooned with the rest of the crew. In the 1920s, he mounted various expeditions to Papua New Guinea, which involved filmmaking and collecting on behalf of the Australian Museum and himself. He stored a number of artefacts in a log cabin at Whale Beach, which became an exotic setting for Sydney's glitterati attending raucous parties there in the 1930s. Selling the property after the war, he left the contents of the cabin, which were kept by the new owners, who moved to London in 1959.