[POLYNESIA] Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, Eastern Arms &c.

Issued by W.O. Oldman, 77, Brixton Hill, London, S.W. November 1904. No. 20. Octavo, original printed wrappers, pp 2 (brief descriptions of 69 items), followed by 2 photographic plates (tissue guards intact) illustrating all items; a fine copy.

Scarce original sales catalogue of the renowned early ethnographic dealer W.O. Oldman. Includes artefacts from New Zealand (Maori clubs and adzes), New Caledonia (spears), Cook Islands (paddle), Australia (Aboriginal throwing club and North Queensland sword club), Africa and South America, as well as numerous examples of daggers, swords and other curiosities from India, Nepal, Assam, Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey.

William Ockelford Oldman was a British collector and dealer of ethnographic art and European arms and armour. His business W.O. Oldman, Ethnographical Specimens, London was mostly active between the late 1890s and 1913. A large number of artefacts sold by Oldman now reside in some of the world’s most important ethnographic collections, and his illustrated sales catalogues, issued between 1901 and 1913, remain significant works of reference. Oldman’s private collection of Oceanic artefacts was sold to the New Zealand Government in 1948 and is now administered by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.