For some years now I have been collecting the finest examples of 19th century and early 20th century Aboriginal material culture I could find. Now that I have left the New South Wales Parliament after fifteen years as a Member of the Upper House, I have decided to make some of my collection available to other collectors and dealers. Over the next few months I will be placing pieces on my website to offer to you. I will change these every few weeks to give you an opportunity to see the variety of pieces I have available.

In the meantime please feel free to phone me on (02) 66 871 900 to discuss what you may be looking for. For example I have some of the finest boomerangs I have ever seen, some really good clubs including rare New South Wales and Victorian clubs, beautiful spear throwers and some very nice shields. Perhaps my favourites are lil-lils and leangles. I have several of these including rare ones.

I believe that 19th century Aboriginal art is grossly undervalued and it was pleasing to see that more collectors and gallery owners in particular showed a good deal of interest in material culture at the Sotheby's sale in Melbourne on 26th and 27th July. Gulmari and wunda shields,a jigalong figure, a lil-lil and a pitchi all achieved world record prices, some three to four times higher than previous sale figures.

It always struck me as odd that an Emily Kngwarreye work painted in l995, one of very many she did, could sell for one or two hundred thousand dollars when an extraordinarily beautiful lil-lil carved by stone in the first half of the 19th century could cost as little as two or three thousand dollars. Those times are now changing. It may well be that in future years such a piece will sell for the same price as an Emily. And not before time in my view.

Give me a call or email me anytime. All the best, Richard

Click here for a list of Aboriginal Books for Artefact Collectors