Two Tasmanian Aboriginal Necklaces
1800 to 1900 Tasmania
Offered by Finch & Co
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Two Tasmanian Aboriginal Necklaces
Made from rare iridescent 'seaweed' Trochus shells
19th Century
Sizes: 184cm long – 72½ ins long (each)
Made from rare iridescent 'seaweed' Trochus shells
19th Century
Sizes: 184cm long – 72½ ins long (each)
Provenance: Collected in Tasmania circa 1893 by the 9th Earl of Kintore, Algernon Keith-Falconer (1852 – 1930) whilst Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony of South Australia
From the contents of Keith Hall, Kintore sold by his descendants at auction September 2009
cf Pitt Rivers Museum 'Australia in Oxford' figure 99, for 3 shell necklaces collected in 1900
From the contents of Keith Hall, Kintore sold by his descendants at auction September 2009
cf Pitt Rivers Museum 'Australia in Oxford' figure 99, for 3 shell necklaces collected in 1900
The gastropod Phasiantrochus is a genus that particularly adapted to feed on kelp and other algae and was thus called the 'seaweed shell'. Three species occur in Tasmanian waters that have been used for necklaces. These are often seen in the early depictions of Tasmanians by European first contact artists, and most famously in the 1860's photographic portrait by J. W. Beattie of Truganini, Tasmania's best known Aborigine.
Medium
Shell