An important and rare ceremonial boomerang / club (lil-lil),…
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An important and rare ceremonial boomerang / club (lil-lil), North Queensland (circa 1900), carved hardwood, 80.5 cm high. Provenance: Private Collection, Victoria, This extraordinary and large ceremonial boomerang-club is carved of hardwood with an irregular flaring and flattened terminus. It is intricately carved with incised human figures and horses which are broken into sections of cross-hatched bands. This highly accentuated figurative form of boomerang-club (sometimes referred to as lil-lil) is incredibly rare. For two very similar and related examples see Aboriginal and Tribal Art, Sotheby's Australia, Sydney, 9 November 1997, lots 691 and 692 which were possibly carved by the same hand. The description indicating that this particular form of boomerang-club comes from Macleay Station in North Queensland.

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  • Important - Important is a word used in the antique trade to indicate an object should be ranked above other similar objects, and is therefore more valuable.

    The object could be considered important because it is by a famous designer or maker, has been shown at a major exhibition, is of exquisite workmanship, is rare or is a "one-off", was made for an important patron, and so on.

    Even further up the pecking order are objects that are described in catalogue descriptions as highly important or extraordinarily important.
  • Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
  • Incised - A record of a name, date or inscription, or a decoration scratched into a surface, usually of a glass or ceramic item with a blunt instrument to make a coarse indentation. Compare with engraving where the surface is cut with a sharp instrument such as a metal needle or rotating tool to achieve a fine indentation.

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