Item #138977 A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford. Charles P. MOUNTFORD.
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford
A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford

A collection of portfolios of Indigenous Australian art produced by Newcraft Publicity in the late 1960s, with a generic introductory text on the cave art and bark paintings of Australia by Charles P. Mountford

Melbourne, Newcraft Publicity, 1967 to 1969.

Seventeen portfolios in various formats (see below), each containing a page or two of text and 5 colour serigraphs printed on card (unless otherwise stated) and interleaved with tissue-guards.

Thick card covers with cloth spines; minor blemishes to some covers; minor damage to a bottom corner of portfolio (B) Volume 4 (see below), with loss of the corner-tip to the last three plates; overall, the contents are in excellent condition. Two volumes are bound in portrait format; the others are presented in landscape format, albeit with the spine along the top edge.

The National Library of Australia catalogue states that this material was 'Available only in set of 24 portfolios at $310.00 ... "Authentic reproductions ready for framing". Edition limited to 200 numbered copies' (we have not traced the original source of this information). However, we have incorporated below a number of pertinent details gleaned from Trove; in particular, we found the relevant catalogue records provided by the State Library of Victoria to be the most informative.

(A) Magnificent Decorative Designs. Melville Island Abstract - Map Central Aust. - Pintubi Churingas - Victorian Possum Skin Rug - Far N. West Coast Phallocrypt (375 × 505 mm; #13/116).

(B) Australian Aboriginal Art. Primitive, Traditional, Decorative (four volumes, each 403 × 550 mm, and all numbered #095; together with three larger-format volumes, each approximately 550 × 795 mm, respectively #1/086, #2/090, and unnumbered). The third volume (without the subtitle 'Primitive, Traditional, Decorative') contains seven plates, reproducing ones that appear in the smaller-format volumes; six are printed on paper, the seventh is printed on the inside rear card cover.

(C) Cave Paintings of Arnhemland (Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 5; each approximately 385 × 500 mm; all #126). The title of the fifth volume is 'Ceremonial Cave Paintings of Arnhemland ["Amazing Anthropomorphic Figures"]'.

(D) Central Australian Aboriginal Paintings. Brilliant Abstract Designs of the Pitjantjatjara (two volumes bound portrait-format, each 750 × 550 mm, respectively #66 and #2/100). The first volume has a brown cover decorated in ochre and lettered in black; the second volume has a blue cover decorated in white and lettered in black. Both volumes contain seven plates.

(E) Magnificent Bark Paintings of Arnhemland and the Islands (Volumes 1, 2 and 4; each approximately 380 × 500 mm; respectively #1/126, #2/116, and #101). The title of the fourth volume is 'Magnificent Bark Paintings of Arnhemland'.

Offered together with three plates, mounted (as issued) on thick card; these also appear in the volume of duplicated plates noted in (B) above. Also included are two copies of another Newcraft Publicity item, 'Central Australian Aboriginal Paintings' by Winifred Hilliard (wrappers, oblong quarto, with 7 colour plates; the second copy is numbered 153). Although the lengthy subtitles are different ('The Pitjantjatjara Abstracts. Designs in Vibrant Colours from Ancient Mythological and Totemic Motifs by Aboriginal Artists at Ernabella in the Musgrave Ranges', and 'Ancient Mythological and Totemic Motifs in Vibrant Colors by Finke River Aboriginal Artists', the contents are the same (albeit in a different order, and with minor variation to the introductory text). To complicate matters even more, the same contents appear in the first very much larger-format volume in (D) above.

We have identified five portfolios not present in this run, cross-referenced with the descriptions above: (A) Magnificent Decorative Designs. [Volume 1] Churinga Patterns, Ground and Rock Paintings;

(C) Cave Paintings of Arnhemland. Volume 4; (E) Magnificent Bark Paintings of Arnhemland. Volume 3: Oenpelli Portfolio; Australian Aboriginal Art: Bark Paintings - Angurugu, Groote Eylandt, Gulf of Carpentaria; and Australian Aboriginal Art: Decorated Shields of North Queensland. The SLV also identifies one related item we do not have: 'Australian Aboriginal Art', Melbourne, Newcraft Publicity, [1969]. It is described as being a single volume, 750 mm tall, containing 'Colour prints on paper of items of aboriginal art miniaturised from the series of authentic reproductions of bark and cave paintings in the Newcraft collection of 23 portfolios'. [22 items].

Item #138977

Price (AUD): $4,000.00

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