1930.75.21

Collection type

Object

Description

Piece of albatross bone carved in supposed 'Maori' style. A forgery. [JC 12 5 2003]

Geographical reference

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

New Zealand

Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand

Cultural groups

Māori

Person

Maker James Frank Robieson

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source James Frank Robieson

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1930

Date collected

By 1930

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1930

Materials and processes

Material Bird Bone, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Perforated

Dimensions

Length: max 50 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1930.75.21

Research and responses

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 exhibited 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]

Associated publications

Illustrated in black and white as figure 12.4 and discussed in detail on page 184 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: '12.4 "Toggle carved from the bone of an abatross's wing, for attachment to a hei-tiki as suspending toggle." (The heavy ridging of the ends of this toggle, which are similarly carved on the flute [1930.75.18) is not found on genuine toggles. This mannerism of style in Robieson's surface decoration may be compared with other examples of his work.' [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]

Search terms: Reproduction, Tool, Ornament, Toggle