muzeeum

Dr. Elliott was a highly respected Australian doctor who, throughout his career, travelled extensively across South East Asia and Oceania teaching doctors in the region. It was during these trips that Dr. Elliott became fascinated with the local art and artefacts and thus began his life-long passion for collecting Oceanic and South East Asian Art.

Over many years of travelling the globe, Dr. Elliott amassed incredible works of art from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, The Philippines, Vanuatu and the Himalayan region which now formed a significant part of his remarkable collection.

The Peter Elliott Collection was an extraordinary private collection acquired over seventy years by a remarkable and inspiring man. Peter Elliott grew up surrounded by art – his father was a friend and patron of Norman Lindsay, and several other modern Australian artists – and he acquired his first piece in 1947, soon after he left his service with the Navy at the age of seventeen. Following graduation, he went on to become a highly respected and decorated surgeon, but it was as a passionate and dedicated art collector that he became most well-known.

When he passed away recently this extraordinary collection went up for auction...this is just one piece.

Before the first Australian patrol to Mt Hagen in 1933, stone axes were in daily use in the Papua New Guinea Highlands and were widely traded.

Many occurrences of hard rocks suitable for axe making were exploited, but only at a few centres was the manufacture of axes carried out on a large scale. In recent times, a group of axe factories located in the Wahgi and Jimi Valleys accounted for the bulk of production and may stretch back 2,500 years.

They are no longer made (being replaced with metal trade goods) and the knowledge of how to make them has essentially been lost in the face of modern cultural influences. If owned now, they are essentially used for ceremonial purposes or as visual demonstrations of wealth and family history.

These 2 specimens were collected in the early 1970's.