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Important whale tooth rei puta, considered to be one of the…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Auckland
Date:
28-Mar-2012
Lot No.
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Description:
Important whale tooth rei puta, considered to be one of the rarest forms of Maori adornment the rei puta was a chiefly signifier worn by the ancestors of the Moa-hunters of Aotearoa. The rei puta style can be traced back to eastern Polynesia and the first wave of ancient adventurers who landed in Aotearoa around the time of the turn of the last millennium. in 1769 Captain Cook's official artist Sydney Parkinson depicted a chief's Son named Te Kuukuu from the Bay of Islands wearing such a pendant. Characteristically it has a superb curved form and a pierced hole for suspension at the end. This pendant tapers into the lower part which is represented by a seal-like head with raised carved eyes and an elongated se and mouth. The rei puta later declined in popularity as Maori increasingly favoured hei tiki neck pendants in humanistic form made from nephrite or bone.D C Starzecka (ed.) Maori Art and Culture (2nd ed.) London the British Museum Press 1998. Anne Salmond two Worlds. First Meetings between Maori and Europeans 1642-1772 London Viking 1991. P H Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) the Coming of the Maori Wellington Maori Purposes Fund Board 1950. H D Skinner tes on the 'Rei-Puta' type of pendant Journal of the Polynesian Society 2 32 1923 pp. 31-34. illustrated in Skinner H. Depth (1974). Comparatively speaking. Studies in Pacific Material Culture 1921-1972 Dunedin. University of Otago Press. Length 9 cm. Width 2.4 cm. Depth 8.7 cm.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Tribal: New Zealand Maori