Lot 45
MALEKULA GRADE MASK
MALEKULA ISLAND, VANUATU
Auction: 28 May 2026 from 13:00 BST
Description
carved wood and pigment, tapering form with a pointed chin, a pronounced central ridge forms a long, narrow nose, flanked by shallow, recessed eye apertures beneath a projecting brow, painted in a palette of red, dark ochre and splashes of white, bearing an old pencil inscription on the reverse, raised on a bespoke mount
Dimensions
35.3cm tall
Provenance
William Frank Ellis OBE (1928–2015), Perth, Australia, was an anthropologist and museum director who led the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Tasmania from 1955 to 1978. He began his career at the museum as an anthropologist, working on its Tasmanian Aboriginal and Pacific Islands collections, before rising to the position of Director. Thence by descent to:
Vivienne Rae Ellis (1930–2015), Bath, Somerset, a noted Australian writer, journalist, and broadcaster.
Private collection, United Kingdom, acquired from the above.