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AUSTRALASIA’S LEADING ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES MAGAZINE
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MARCH - MAY 2010
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ANZAC TREASURES Letters reaching out from the past Celebrating the legacy of
MARGUERITE MAHOOD Learn to identify
FAKES & FORGERIES TRAVEL FEATURE Follow the locals in New York Special collections to see in London Aust $9.95 NZ $13.95 ISSN 1445-8160
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Lime spatulas from Papua New Guinea
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Crispin Howarth 14 Planet of the Apes memorabilia
John Harrison 16 Hooked on barbed wire
Rob Ditessa 44 Workshop Hagenauer Wein: part 2
Ronald Hagenauer 78 Fans: Exquisite works of art 84 Photography: Seeing old London
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88 The highly collectable cane
Ceramics feature 20 The creative legacy of Marguerite Mahood
Marvin Hurnall
Heritage
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32 Memorabilia & memorials at St Andrew’s Church
Noel Adsett 62 Quilts: the fabric of society 82 Celebrating Lebanese village culture
military memorabilia 10 Anzac connections Treasured letters from a
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World War One digger
Michelle Edgar 66 Rising Sun emblem
Rob Ditessa
Experts share 48 Fakes and forgeries: learn to differentiate
Numismatics feature
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28 Recent auction trends
Peter Lane 58 Australian 1934 proof set sets a world record 70 The Challenger medal
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Peter Lane
Fashion feature 40 Beth Levine: First lady of shoes
Travel feature 36 Armenian Pottery in Israel
Melody Amsel-Arieli 55 British studio pottery in London 74 New York’s One Hanson Place 92
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out & about
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regular features 51 Conundrum 53 Collectables fairs 54 How to subscribe 94 Bulletin board 96 Collectors’ bookshelf 103 Advertising rates 104 Advertisers’ Index
cover Marguerite Mahood (1901-1989), Figure, c. 1930s, hand modelled glazed earthenware inscribed on base. Courtesy Marvin Hurnall A. & J. Bool, Temple Bar, c.1878, carbon print mounted on card, 227 x 176 mm. Published by Society for Photographing Relics of Old London, printed by Henry Dixon & Son © Royal Academy of Arts, London Japanese wooden fan, c. 1910, red silk gauze. Fan Museum, Greenwich, London
WIN conundrum enter our prize draw See page 51
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FROM A BASIC IMPLEMENT TO AN EBONY TREASURE
Lime spatulas FROM THE MASSIM REGION OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA More often mislabelled as a dressing aid, eating utensil or linked with witchcraft practices, these crafted objects are fine artworks of immense value Crispin Howarth he irresistibly tactile Massim lime spatulas are among the finest sculptural arts from the Pacific. Aesthetically, they have a sense of worth beyond their actual function and often deify classification when they appear at auction or in antique shops. I have known them to be tagged as shoe horns and letter openers to odder titles including sorcery daggers and drug spoons. Strangely enough, the latter description is quite near the mark. Commonly known as lime spatulas, these ebony utensils from Papua New Guinea’s Massim region are created for the recreational pastime of betel chewing.
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GEOGRAPHY
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The Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea covers the south eastern tip of mainland New Guinea, known culturally as the Massim region. Many islands stud the waters eastward creating a border between the Coral Sea and the Solomon Sea. Among these low-lying coral islands are the Trobriand Islands. These have been described as the ‘islands of love’; made famous by the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in the early 20th century. As the Trobriand Islands are so well known many spatula are attributed to here almost on default.
CUSTOM
OF BETEL CHEWING
An essential part of sociality in the Massim region is the custom of chewing betel. Rarely will you see a meeting of people without the sedate habit of betel chewing. When mixed in the mouth with slaked lime, the betel nut releases mildly narcotic-like properties giving the chewer a relaxing and euphoric feeling. It has also been suggested that betel nut can suppress hunger pangs, relieve headaches, minor ills and even act as an aphrodisiac, so it is unsurprising that betel chewing is considered slightly addictive. During chewing, the mouth produces bright red excess saliva, which leads to the unsightly habit of constant spitting. Prolonged chewing has the effect of staining teeth black. BETEL
CHEWING KIT
To chew betel in the Massim region a small ‘tool kit’ is required – a container for the slaked lime, a container for betel nuts and a long spatula to dab the lime into your mouth. It is these spatulas that are the focus of this article. Due to the attractiveness of the carvers’ detailed work spatulas have been souvenired by visitors to the Massim region since the mid 19th century. Thousands of examples can be found in both museum and private collections around the world.
REACHING OUT FROM THE PAST:
Treasured letters FROM A WORLD WAR ONE DIGGER
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So young Alexander Edmistone fudged his birth date and marched off to join the allied troops in France, still underage. He returned home four years later, aged 21 and a man in many ways. One can only guess at the horrors he endured, far from home and family and discovering that war was not the lark the recruitment posters said it was.
Love letters from the early years of the last century are a reminder that some things never change Michelle Edgar ife for a seventeen year old boy in rural 1916 Australia was, to understate it mildly, vastly different from today. There were no social invitations and no assistance from the newly federated government. A car was just an outlandish dream to while away the hours of farm chores. Also, the whole world was at war and Alex wanted to leave home and join the overseas action.
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SCOTLAND, FRANCE, LONDON… With Alex, we are incredibly lucky: he kept and handed to his children four years of carefully written correspondence that miraculously found its way to him in various European war trenches. These aged and delicate missives trace young Alex’s postings: Miss Feeney of Yeronga; Miss
2 1 Alexander Edmistone 2 Recruitment poster for World War One 3 Alex’s list of ladies’ addresses 4 Envelopes showing original addresses and redirections for letters to Alex 5 Hilda Edmistone’s letter to her elder brother
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memorabilia MORE THAN MONKEY BUSINESS! One of the most popular and enduring sagas in the science fiction film genre, Planet of the Apes was turned down by every major studio until it came to the attention of Charlton Heston John Harrison he Planet of the Apes phenomenon began in the mid1960s, when late producer Arthur P Jacobs purchased the screen rights to French author Pierre Boulle’s novel, Monkey Planet. Although Jacobs’ drastically re-written treatment was rejected by every major studio, Charlton Heston expressed an interest. Twentieth Century Fox gave Jacobs the goahead to shoot a ten-minute test footage in which Heston is an astronaut having an articulate conversation with the orang-utan Dr Zaius (played by Edward G Robinson), as well as the male chimpanzee Cornelius (James Brolin) and his wife Zira (Linda Harrison).
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The test footage received a positive response and proved that ape make-up would work onscreen, so Fox Studios went ahead with the first Apes film. Planet of the Apes was released in February 1968 and was a huge hit. Younger people were attracted to the story of astronaut Taylor crash-landing on a planet where evolution has been reversed and intelligent apes are the masters with humans the mute slaves. The sombre ending – discovery of the Statue of Liberty, rusted and halfburied in the sand, revealing that he has landed on the nuclear war ravaged Earth – tinged the film with a social commentary matching the times of anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear sentiments.
The commercial success of the film justified its enormous costs, with four sequels produced between 1970 and 1973: Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes. In 1974 Apes became a television series, closing after a half-season. In 1975 the enjoyable but short-lived half-hour animated series, Return to the Planet of the Apes, was produced. ORIGINAL APES MEMORABILIA There was little Apes merchandise released during the initial runs of the films, apart from original posters, lobby cards, stills, press kits, program booklets and soundtrack LPs. The most notable original Apes memorabilia is the 44-piece bubble gum card set issued by Topps in 1968, a quite rare and desirable item especially if with the original counter top display box.
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