Item TB103
This Item was Sold on 30 July 2008
for $67
Similar artifacts for sale are often found on the Aboriginal
Boomerangs web page.
Historical Pricing information for this item and similar artifacts
can be found at: Historical Artifact
Prices.
This returning style boomerang was made out of a nearly
flawless hardwood elbow. It is decorated with Australian art
that is both embossed and incised into the surface. The
workmanship is very nice and unusual. I have never seen one
like it before. It almost looks like contemporary laser
etching work, but this one was purchased in the early 1940s
by a nurse who was serving in Darwin, Australia during World
War II. The planform and airfoil profiling is very similar
to that found on good Aboriginal boomerangs that were made
in Queensland. This might be a returnable boomerang if
thrown carefully, but it would be better to use it only for
display. This is a nice example of a boomerang made for the
tourist industry more than 60 years ago. Very good to
excellent condition. Span = 52 cm ; Weight = 216 gm
Australian Aborigines are well known for making boomerangs.
The majority of the Aborigines had the technology to make
throwsticks, or non-returning boomerangs. Only a small
percentage of the tribal groups knew how to make true
returners and most of these came from the eastern coastal
regions of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. During
the past century, the majority of the Aborigines came out of
the bush and were somewhat assimilated into the European
man's culture. Many Aborigines began making returning style
boomerangs to sell to tourists. The earliest ones were well
made out of natural timber and with the grain following the
curvature of the boomerang. Today, most hardwood boomerang
are cut out of a large board and the grain is usually
straight and running parallel to a line spanning the tips of
the blades. Boomerangs that are made with the grain
following the contour of the blades are much stronger and
more valuable. In addition, some boomerangs have good
airfoiling. The majority do not. Most "tourist boomerangs"
have painted upper surfaces that display Australian animals
and decorative lines and/or geometric patterns. Most
pre-contact returners have no artwork or the artwork is
simple and scratched into the surface. It is easy to tell
the tourist boomerang from the valuable ethnographic
artifact. However, tourist boomerangs that are made properly
with the grain running along the contour and with good
airfoiling and art work do have good collectable value,
especially if they are made by a famous Aboriginal artists,
like Bill Onus or Joe Timbery.
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