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THB19th C. Australian Aboriginal Carved Wood Wunda Shield
Lot 21d
About Seller
Artemis Fine Arts
686 S Taylor Ave, Ste 106
Louisville, CO 80027
United States
Selling antiquities, ancient and ethnographic art online since 1993, Artemis Gallery specializes in Classical Antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal / Oceanographic art. Our extensive inventory includes pottery, stone, metal, wood, glass and textil...Read more
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Live Auction in Progress ... Currently on Lot Estimate:
$800 - $1,200
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About Auction
Live
By Artemis Fine Arts
Aug 22, 2025
Set Reminder
2025-08-22 10:00:00
2025-08-22 10:00:00
America/New_York
Bidsquare
Bidsquare : Indigenous Art - Ralph T. Coe Center, Santa Fe, NM
https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/indigenous-art---ralph-t-coe-center-santa-fe-nm-20324
Featuring works of art from the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a non-profit focused on promoting Indigenous Arts globally. All proceeds from the sale of these items will support future grants to Rehoming Program participants. Artemis Fine Arts info@artemisfinearts.com
Featuring works of art from the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a non-profit focused on promoting Indigenous Arts globally. All proceeds from the sale of these items will support future grants to Rehoming Program participants. Artemis Fine Arts info@artemisfinearts.com
View Full Catalog (452)
- Lot Description
Oceania, Western Australia, Aboriginal, ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. A finely carved Western Australian Aboriginal wood parry shield, known as a wunda, its elongated, gently convex form adorned with deeply incised zigzag patterns arranged in a series of longitudinal grooves. Traces of red and white ocher linger in the recesses, soft reminders of its once vivid ceremonial presence. Wunda shields were widely distributed across the vast expanse of Western Australia, yet they were primarily produced by communities inhabiting the lands between the Gascoyne and Murchison Rivers. These waterways, draining into the Indian Ocean along the continent's western edge, anchored a region rich in both cultural and trade networks. From here, shields like this traveled far along intricate inland exchange routes, linking distant Aboriginal groups in a web of material and symbolic exchange. Practical as well as emblematic, the wunda served as protection in combat, deftly deflecting spears and boomerangs. Size: 5.3" W x 30.5" H (13.5 cm x 77.5 cm)
In addition to their martial role, they appeared in ritual performances, particularly those re-enacting episodes from the Dreaming - the primordial era of creation - when ancestral beings were said to carry shields. The bold zigzag motifs of Western Australia carry layered meaning, often linked to rain and water. Broad, nested patterns such as these have been interpreted as the ripple marks left on sand by retreating tides, the undulating surface of floodwaters, or the wind's touch across a lake. Through such designs, the wunda becomes more than a defensive tool - it is also a bearer of story, geography, and ancestral memory, carved into wood and carried through time.
Provenance: Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, acquired in 2017; ex-Gaylord Torrence (Fred and Virginia Merrill Senior Curator of American Indian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and professor emeritus in fine arts, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa); ex-Taylor Dale collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
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#196108Small area of old, inactive insect damage. Some chips, nicks, and abrasions as shown, but otherwise, intact and very nice with very faint remains of pigment and nice patina to wood.Condition
- Shipping Info
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