Item PGM
This Item was Sold on 5 July 2013
for $223
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Historical Pricing information for this item and similar collectable boomerangs can be found on the Boomerang Pricing Guide
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This large traditional boomerang is Herb Smith's early Long Distance model. It is made out of thick (8.5 mm) Baltic Birch plywood and there are 3 lead weights in the lift arm tip and a single lead weight in the dingle arm tip. Herb used to throw these more than 100 metres in the early 1970s and he set a LD World Record using a similar boomerang. This boomerang was part of Herb's personal throw kit at the time of his death and I acquired it from Herb's widow, Anim. It is decorated with line art on the upper surface. Herb signed it on the underside, but it is not dated. There are shallow scuff marks on the underside near the lift arm tip, but no cracks, edge dings or other damage. You can certainly throw contemporary Paxolin or G12 models further, but this one is a piece of history. It is what the best LD throwers used more than 40 years ago and before the age of Paxolin.
Herb Smith was one of England's greatest boomerang makers and throwers. Herb started making Birch plywood hooks and traditional boomerangs in the 1960s. He was one of the first suppliers of boomerangs to the Boomerang Man in the early 1970s. Before Al Gerhards started making his S/L hooks, Herb Smith was the only commercial supplier of long distance boomerangs. One of the first boomerangs I ever purchased was a large weighted Sussex Hook with a range of 80+ metres. I became an instant fan. Herb was an early Long Distance World Record holder with a carefully documented throw of 108 yards on 17 June 1972 using a large weighted traditional model called the "Gem". In the 1980s, Herb introduced the world to Paxolin, a dense and hard composite material that expanded the range of his boomerangs beyond that of his plywood models. Herb continued to make plywood models as sporting boomerangs, even after the introduction of Paxolin models. The Paxolin boomerangs were smaller and usually painted in two colors and with simple line art. The wooden models were often decorated with many colorful bands, flowers, birds and occasionally other themes. Herb did most of his own art work, but while he was a prison guard, he employed the skills of a master forger in the prison where he worked to paint a few of his boomerangs. Herb stopped making boomerangs for several years beginning in the late 1980s and began making boomerangs again in 1992, Herb continued to make boomerangs for only a couple additional years. Herb lost his life to bone cancer in 1995. Herb's models are among the finest of collectable boomerangs and the supply continues to diminish. |
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