Carved emu gGGs a unique Australian art form

摘要

We take the emu a little for granted now but, in the nineteenth century, it had extraordinary power to astonish European newcomers (a giant bird that doesn't fly and is as tall as a man!) and seemed to embody the great strangeness of our continent. The Australian silver authority, John Hawkins, says that the rare phenomenon of a uniquely 'Australian art form' arose from about 1857, in the form of the mounting of emu eggs in silver settings. The National Library of Australia has several of these delicate creations, all of them part of the Library's Rex Nan Kivell Collection.