Seattle: Polynesian Artifacts ~ New Pictures

i saw the following ad on Craigslist:
"Large personal collection of New Guinea,Australian,Polynesian artifacts, books and prints for the collector."
i wrote for more info:
the reply:
the sale is tomorrow
"The books include classic ethnographic works and monographs. Many come from the Webb Memorial Library that I purchased from the Anthropology Dept of the U. of Washington. Yes there are dozens of wood carvings from the Pacific area, many at very reasonable prices. There are also some rare items that are of museum quality. I collected them over four decades of being an anthropologist and museum director in Australia, Canada and Seattle.

The sale starts at 9 am tomorrow and we live at 5509 17th Ave. N.E. just up the street from the Burke Museum from which I have just retired as the Director. Please come and see what we are offering. I'm sure you will find many items of interest."

im waking early to check this out! anyone else game?

Dr. Macdonald's house was amazing. the highlight was definitely the skull rack (a mere4K). i bought a large tapa cloth and 3 sepik masks (pictures to follow..need to do a minor repair to one, and hang them up in the Rongorongo Room)

i didn't get lots and lots of pictures, since this was the first time i was using this camera.

Skull Rack




assorted blugeoning objects and boomerangs

This is what i bought, 3 masks +1 Tapa
Sepic Mask

Tapa Cloth 47 x 74

Flat Mask

Pointy Mask

[ Edited by: dogbytes on 2004-08-30 19:40 ]

Heck Yeah, I'll go ! Selector Lopaka has to work tomorrow morning, but I would love to see what they have. Thanks for posting about this, dogbytes ! Change of subject, but are you going to the Islander tonight ? Hope to see you there.

Dang, I would love to go, but I'm out of town right now -- up in the hardscrabble existence of the mountains of Idaho (wireless internet access notwithstanding).

I hope you take your digital cameras.

I'm glad you kids are going so any cool stuff will hopefully end up in the hands of our kind of people. Plus I won't be adding more junk to my life and i can go back to bed right now,

Monkeyskull ~ there is the accessory for the Voodoo Lounge ~ the skull rack ~ its big, but i bet it would fit perfectly in your basement room. the colors are perfect too! i'm estimating it is 9 feet long, 4 feet high, 5 carved skulls.. its really a beautiful artifact. the story goes, it was made by a New Guinna artist, after a trip to Berlin ~ where he saw the original, which was done by his grandfather.. it fell into the possession of missionaries (of course) and into their warehouses...or something like that.. Dr Macdonald would tell you more.

it was neat to eavesdrop ~ he's full of travel tales.

oddly, people were buying stuff they had no idea of... he explained the maori club in 3 different stories (all the while holding the club and chopping it in the air), but the lady still couldnt grasp how/why this weapon is used. shoulda blugeoned her ...

anyways. if you have a spare 4 grand, the skull rack is yours..although i think he's willing to deal on the price.

On 2004-08-28 16:01, dogbytes wrote:
anyways. if you have a spare 4 grand, the skull rack is yours..although i think he's willing to deal on the price.

4k, eh? Maybe it's a good thing I'm outta town.

Thanks for the pix, dogbytes. A lot of neat stuff. Since my price range is from free to cheap I won't be haunted by the idea of having missed such an unusual sale.

Get the pix of your find up soon!

[i]On 2004-08-28 16:58, monkeyskull wrote
4k, eh? Maybe it's a good thing I'm outta town.

you have until sept 15 ~ before the movers arrive..

at least go look, he's really cool about that ~ email and ask for an appt.

that Moai Kavakava the guy in the 5th picture,looks good to me, TNTiki i think was looking for one of those or at least asked if i could carve one.

Dogbytes, that is sooo coool!

thank you for posting that information, the pictures, and it's so neat to hear that you were able to bring some stuff home! What FUN!!!

i posted pictures of the stuff i got ~ waiting to see the items puamana purchased. wish i had asked for an early preview.. almost hate to think of what was bought earlier!

Nice masks...I genuinely think you bought the coolest pieces. They really punch up your room. Thank Tiki I didn't go...We don't need another hair pulling fight between the two of us...Oops, that was s'posed to just stay between us Mucky Mucks. Sorry.