[NEW GUINEA] Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, Eastern Arms &c. by OLDMAN, William O. (1879-1949)

Issued by W.O. Oldman, 77, Brixton Hill, London, S.W. January 1905. No. 22. Octavo, original printed wrappers, pp 2 (brief descriptions of 86 items), followed by 2 photographic plates (tissue guards intact) illustrating most items; a fine copy. Scarce original sales catalogue of the renowned early ethnographic dealer W.O. Oldman. Includes 43 artefacts from British New Guinea, mainly from the Papuan Gulf (human skull, shark mouth drum, shields, bullroarers etc.) and the Trobriands, and 43 Indian daggers, swords, muskets and other weaponry. 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.