Francis de Sales McHugh Tribal Art Collection
Francis de Sales McHugh was born in Crows Nest, Toowomba district, Queensland Australia in 1896, the son of Irish immigrants and one of nine children. He trained as a carpenter and was employed by the District telegraph office. In the early 1920’s Francis was sent to the newly acquired territories of Papua and New Guinea in order to supervise the building of post offices to enable telegraphic communications between the main Island, the many small islands of the region and mainland Australia. He worked with a small band of fellow countrymen and groups of indigenous labourers, staying in the area for months on end. Francis was fascinated by the art and culture, considered distasteful by many of his peers and often returned with chests full.
keen, banishing it all to a large cupboard and as the collection grew to the garden shed. By 1935 Francis was based back in Queensland but made occasional nostalgic trips to the region. He also returned to look for friends at the end of WW2 after the occupying Japanese had left. After his death his daughters stored the collection in trunks, Joan his younger daughter came to live in England in 1957, eight large trunks followed a few years later. Some items have been on display in her Surrey home but the majority have been in the attic. The lots in this sale date from the late 19th Century although the majority are early to mid 20th Century. Nothing has been acquired after the 1950’s. The remainder of the collection is be sold later in the year.
His daughter Joan remembers that her mother was less
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