One of a pair of bronze cast kangaroo bookends

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Type: Bookends
Date: 1915 - 1920
Place: Austria; Germany
Materials: Bronze, Wood
Collection: Terence Lane collection
Accession number: 1999.0017.0174

Description

Bronze cast kangaroo bookend, cold painted in colours and mounted on an L-shaped blackwood stand. It is one of a pair.

The pair to this bookend was an emu mounted on a similar blackwood base.

About the collection

This collection consists of approximately 180 objects of Australiana, predominantly featuring the kangaroo. It encompasses a wide range of styles produced in Australia and overseas over a period of 150 years. The collection is diverse and includes decorative art objects, such as a Doulton umbrella stand, as well as an assortment of ephemera from several postcards to a matchbox. This collection has been amassed by Terence Lane, a former Senior Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria over a period of 20 years. During this period, many of the items collected were not in high demand. However, they have since become eagerly sought and the result is a collection which has increased in cultural value. It is considered the best collection of kangaroo theme items in Australia.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:16 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.