Post #205155 by MrBaliHai on Sat, Dec 31, 2005 4:21 PM

While browsing through the paper ephemera collection at our local antique mall, I found a whole folder full of illustrations from articles about Polynesia and Australia that'd been torn out of periodicals and books. I bought the ones I liked best (for dirt cheap, I might add), scanned them, and put them up on this webpage called Vintage Oceania.

Here are smaller versions of 2 of the images on my website. I just love the Moais in the engraving of the "Idol Festival in Easter Island", the artist got their faces completely wrong. In fact, the 3rd one from the right looks like a caricature of a real person! Maybe it was the editor of Harper's Weekly where this illustration appeared back in 1873...:D

I also dig this engraving of Tahitian maidens reclining on the beach. This came from an 1881 article called "The Last King of Tahiti" that was written by Lady Constance Gordon Cumming, a famous travel writer of the 19th century. She was quite an accomplished artist, but this engraving doesn't appear to have been done by her.

Very interesting stuff. I hope to find more of it in the near future.

Happy New Year!

Weblog: Eye of the Goof

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2006-01-02 17:10 ]

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2006-01-02 18:38 ]

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2006-01-03 07:05 ]