A FINE MAORI GABLE FIGURE, tekoteko, standing with the splayed right hand carved in relief on the abdomen the left on the chest with the three fingers pointing vertically, their tips on the base of the neck, extensive carved moko ornament about the face, arms and legs with large spirals on shoulders and hips, the eyes and mouth inset with haliotis shell, the rectangular support below carved in relief with a further stylised figure with protruding tongue, his body carved with spirals and notched ornament, a pair of eyes below his feet, dark patina, painted number 119869, circa 1825

Details

A FINE MAORI GABLE FIGURE, tekoteko, standing with the splayed right hand carved in relief on the abdomen the left on the chest with the three fingers pointing vertically, their tips on the base of the neck, extensive carved moko ornament about the face, arms and legs with large spirals on shoulders and hips, the eyes and mouth inset with haliotis shell, the rectangular support below carved in relief with a further stylised figure with protruding tongue, his body carved with spirals and notched ornament, a pair of eyes below his feet, dark patina, painted number 119869, circa 1825
88.5cm. high

Provenance

Ethnographic Museum, Budapest

Literature

Bodrogi, 1981, p.197
Mack, 1982, p.101, fig.4

Lot Essay

An almost identical gable figure in the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (1897.76 (z.6350)) was donated to the museum by Baron Anatole von Hügel in 1897, and the museum register records that it was collected in 1833 in Gisborne by his father, Baron Charles von Hügel, who was in New Zealand 1833-1835.

More from Tribal Art

View All