- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Piece of elephant (?) ivory carved with a human face in 'Maori' style. A forgery. [JC 12 5 2003]
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Māori
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1930
- Date collected
- By 1930
- Acquisition information
- Purchased: 1930
- Materials and processes
- Material Elephant Tooth Ivory Animal, Process Carved
- Dimensions
- Length: max 100 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1930.75.20
- Associated publications
- For a general account of this collection, see page 182 of ‘The Faking of Maori Art’, by Henry Devenish Skinner and T. Barrow in Henry Devenish Skinner, Comparatively Speaking: Studies in Pacific Material Culture 1921– 1972 (eds. Peter Gathercole, Foss Leach, and Helen Leach), (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1974), pp. 181–92: 'The only clear evidence of Robieson's deceptive sale of his own work as genuine is the catalogue of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. An entry for 8 April 1930, pp. 128-129, records the acquisition of twenty-one "Old Maori" items sold for the sum of nineteen pounds by J. B. Robieson, of 24 Bromley Hill, Bromley, Kent. Genuine artefacts in this collection include adzes, a block of nephrite, and commonly occurring material such as partly made fish hooks. The decorated items in this group, which represent the supposedly most valuable part of the purchase, are made in a characteristic Robieson style. The falsity of this sale went unnoticed until 1956, when one of the authors [Barrow; see on] identified exhibitied specimens as being from the hand of Robieson.' Skinner and Barrow go on to discuss particular items. They also note (note 7): 'The Pitt Rivers Museum catalogue records Robieson's initials as "J.N." however K. R. Cairns confirms his forenames as "James Frank". The recording of "B" for "F" is a probable error, due in this case it would seem, to the cataloguer'; and (note 8): 'T. Barrow on a research visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum detected Robieson and Little forgeries which were then on exhibit. Miss Beatrice Blackwood of the Pitt Rivers Museum, in a letter dated 10 December 1970, recalls the occasion in these words: "I remember very clearly Mr Barrow's visit in 1956 when he spotted the Robieson forgeries. We took them out of the display cases and put them in a drawer labelled "Forgeries" where they still are."' [JC 12 5 2003] The collection is also referred to on page 738 of ‘Pacific Arts, IV. Forgery’, by Robin J. Watt, in Vol. 23 of Jane Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, no. 7, pp 737–8: 'He [Robieson] sold many on the open market, including some to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, in 1930.' [JC 12 5 2003] Illustrated in black and white as figure 12.2 and discussed in detail on page 183 of 'The Faking of Maori Art’, by Henry Devenish Skinner and T. Barrow in Henry Devenish Skinner, Comparatively Speaking: Studies in Pacific Material Culture 1921– 1972 (eds. Peter Gathercole, Foss Leach, and Helen Leach), (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1974), pp. 181–92: '12.2 "Pendant of cachalot tooth, carved to represent human face with protruded tongue." (The ivory appears to be elehant tusk ivory, not the Pacific sperm whale tooth ivory used in the rei-puta type neck pendant, which is no doubt the inspiring form in this instance. Features of the familiar taiaha (long club) head have been combined with the rei-puta in a manner quite unknown to Classic Maori culture.)' [JC 12 5 2003]
Search terms: Reproduction, Figure, Ornament, Pendant