JEWELLERY, DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS AUCTION Tuesday, 2 November 2021 - 10:00 AM start

A Theo Schoon carved ovoid gourd, signed, 400 x 300 x 300mm

Lot Details

provenance: Private Collection. With Art+Object 2017: Private collection, Wellington. Purchased from the artist, circa 1961. Old repair. Note: In the American, Ohio based newsletter 'Gourd Seed' of February 1962 Schoon in an article "Cultivating the Polynesian Gourd in New Zealand" wrote of a visit to the Auckland Museum where '...the patterns on decorated gourds were identical to many tattoo patterns and from then on, every single gourd or even fragments of them in our Museum Collections became of great importance to me.'. Schoon's captivation with gourds saw him research their use and decoration as well as cultivating Māori heritage varieties at his house in Arch Hill. This example with carefully zoned pakati notch carving where the asymmetrical voids are as important to the overall design as much as the surface carving.