21
An early 20th century Balkan carved wood cradle
Estimate:
£150 - £200
Passed
Live Auction
Fine & Decorative Interiors - Tuesday 23 May 2023 at 1pm
Lot Updates
All lots are subject to 25% Buyer's Premium plus VAT
Category
Description
An early 20th century Balkan carved wood cradle
With all over incised decoration, the sides with carrying handles, the base possible replaced, all of pegged construction, 84cm wide, 38cm deep, 38cm high.
A closely related cradle in the collection of The British Museum, London (2008, 8029.13) is thought to be from the rural Catholic area of Mirdita. The original dowels would have been simple twigs replaced as necessary. Similar carved wood ornament appears on the distaff given to the Museum by Edith, Durham (EU1914.0330.1))
The Museum notes that babies were well covered and tied into these cradles with cords and that contemporary accounts of the early 20th century record that in some parts of the Balkans women went to work in the fields, carrying the cradle with their baby on their head, see Olive Lodge, Peasant Life in Yugoslavia, London, 1941, ill. opp .p.104.
With all over incised decoration, the sides with carrying handles, the base possible replaced, all of pegged construction, 84cm wide, 38cm deep, 38cm high.
A closely related cradle in the collection of The British Museum, London (2008, 8029.13) is thought to be from the rural Catholic area of Mirdita. The original dowels would have been simple twigs replaced as necessary. Similar carved wood ornament appears on the distaff given to the Museum by Edith, Durham (EU1914.0330.1))
The Museum notes that babies were well covered and tied into these cradles with cords and that contemporary accounts of the early 20th century record that in some parts of the Balkans women went to work in the fields, carrying the cradle with their baby on their head, see Olive Lodge, Peasant Life in Yugoslavia, London, 1941, ill. opp .p.104.