Carrying dish "coolamon" ·  Australia, Central · ID: 3037230

Description

light wood, red ground, white and black pigment, yellow ochre, painted with dot pattern, the dots used to form lines as well as to fill space, slightly dam., minor missing parts at the rim;
“coolamons” were used by women for many workaday purposes - for winnowing flour-yielding grasses and tree seeds, for gathering the sparse fruits of the desert, for digging food out of the ground around the camp. “Coolamons” are traditionally made from pieces of mulga, eucalypt, bloodwood, quondong or white gum, using stone axes. The carriers are rough-hewn in the bush and finished at camp by adzing, scraping and final sand-papering. Their decorations typically feature symbolic descriptions of traditional stories.

The object Carrying dish “coolamon” with the object ID 3037230 was part of the auction 78th tribal art auction on October 18, 2014. The object with the lot number 56 achieved a sales price of EUR 300 with an asking price of EUR 200.

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Comparing literature

Carrick, John (ed.), Art of the first Australians, Camperdown o.J., p. 29 ff