Shield "wunda", spear thrower "woomera" and boomerang · Australia · ID: 3052305
Bernhard Graf von Lippe, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany
Description
wood, pigments,
a) shield “wunda”, red and yellow ochre, h: 78 cm
b) spear thrower “woomera”, wooden spike, fixed with spinifex resin and fine grass fibre binding, h: 58 cm
c) unusual boomerang type in hook design, coastal Western Australia, rest., l: 60 cm
According to records of the Western Australian Museum, Carlshausen arrived in Australia in 1899 aboard the “Reichspostdampfer Prinzregent Luitpold”. He was a hotelier in Bayswater (1901) and Fremantle (1904), ran a pig farm in Jandakot from 1908 and later settled as a farmer in Wubin. He died in Dalwallinu in 1942. A street in Atwell is named after him.
Carlshausen acquired objects belonging to the Australian indigenous people or received them as gifts and brought them to Germany, where they were stored in the Carlshausen mansion in Altenhaßlau.
The object Shield “wunda”, spear thrower “woomera” and boomerang with the object ID 3052305 was part of the auction Auction 105 on November 15, 2025. The object with the lot number 188 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,700 with an asking price of EUR 800.
You can find more Shields and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on Australian art.
Comparing literature
Jones, Philip, Boomerang, Kent Town 1996, p. 90, ill. on top