A rare collection of over 20,000 African artifacts and artwork were up for auction in Vancouver Sunday.
The art is timeless, and so too is the story behind the man who spent most of his life, more than sixty years, collecting them.
Englishman Eric Balson was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1930, where he spent most of his young life in the bush country. One of his first jobs was catching poisonous snakes to milk the venom out. He would then sell it as anti-venom.
From tribal artifacts, to hunting trophies and oil paintings, Eric collected it all during his explorations and adventures in Africa.
Later in his life, Eric became the first Chief Warden of Tanzania’s Serengeti Game Reserve where he advocated strongly against poaching. He also worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He then moved to Papa New Guinea where he set up crocodile farming projects to help the locals become sustainable.
In 1994 he started a new chapter in his life. He made a long journey from Africa to Alberta where he enjoyed retirement with his wife Viva until he died on Feb. 22, 2014.
When he passed, he left the massive collection to his family who decided to ship some of the artifacts to Able Auctions in Vancouver. The company has never seen a collection as diverse in its past 25 years in business. Other pieces were donated to a wildlife museum in Sundre, Alberta.
“We don’t see this in Vancouver very often,” says auctioneer Tyler Olson. “Everything from zebra skins to a 57-inch horn Kudu shoulder mounted to carvings of all shapes and sizes, it’s quit spectacular.”
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Olson says there are pieces so rare, he’s never seen them at an auction before.
“There’s some spree heads masks, which are all unique. One of a kind the way that they’re made to ward off evil spirits.”
Eric’s son Alan Balson says it was difficult to part with his fathers’ collection, but the amount of artifacts was overwhelming.
“They had over 52 paintings alone in their house together with everything else. There are some things that were irreplaceable. There was a lot of jade, turquoise pieces that my parents had and my mom found it hard to part with that.”
Alan recalls stories his father would tell him about trading in a bag of sugar for items such as stone tools from African tribes who apparently no longer needed it.
Eric was best known as a wildlife conservationist, game warden and author. Some of the prospective buyers say that even more than the art, taking a piece from Eric’s legacy has been an honour.
“He was one of the first people to actually want to stop poaching and preserve the environment there and that was going back 50 to 60 years ago. Very unique man,” says collector Ken Dodge.
On the back of an original elephant painting by a famous British artist named David Shepherd, is a personal inscription to Eric, preserved decades later.
“To Eric.. who over so many years has done so much for the wildlife of Africa unsung and without the glamour of publicity..with warmest regards David Shepherd.”
His humility and passion for Africa is living on after his death through the culturally significant art he collected.
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