Description:

A Finely Carved and Ochre Painted Ancestral Carving, Iatmul People, Middle Sepik River Area, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea,
field Collected by Mack Wallace Ruff (1912-1999).

Professor Wallace Ruff, an American who had a long and distinguished career in teaching and research. His teaching career started soon after studying landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948.

He has won numerous awards for his architectural and landscape designs. In 1974 he began his long association with the Department of Architecture and Building at the PNG University of Technology.

The Ruff Collection was made by Wallace and his late wife, Ruth, over 25 years of research and work in Papua New Guinea. Beginning in 1958, the Ruff's used their summer breaks and sabbatical leaves to collect artifacts, photograph villages and ceremonial houses and conduct research in the villages of PNG.

Professor Ruff's great concern is that the architectural heritage of this country will disappear as it has in other developing countries.

The collection numbers 1600 ethnographic artifacts collected over a 25-year period from Papua New Guinea, by Ruth and Wallace Ruff. The artifacts collected by Mac and Ruth were donated to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington.
This very powerful sculpture was field collected in the 1960s by Ruff. He later sold it to the late artist Vernon Witham who was greatly enamoured with it.

Provenance:
The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

  • Dimensions: H 114 cm

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All lots must be paid for and collected by 4pm AEST Monday 8 November. Unfortunately we cannot arrange shipping from this location, however we can arrange the goods to be removed to our rooms at the buyers expense.

9 August 2022 18:00 AEST
Stanmore, Australia

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Bid Increments
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A$0 A$49 A$5
A$50 A$99 A$10
A$100 A$299 A$20
A$300 A$499 A$25
A$500 A$999 A$50
A$1,000 A$1,999 A$100
A$2,000 A$4,999 A$200
A$5,000 A$9,999 A$500
A$10,000 A$19,999 A$1,000
A$20,000 A$49,999 A$2,000
A$50,000 A$99,999 A$5,000
A$100,000 A$199,999 A$10,000
A$200,000 A$499,999 A$20,000
A$500,000 + A$50,000