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1884.13.28

Wood staff with a rounded handle and decoratively carved along the shaft, inlaid with haliotis shell on both sides near the tip [ZM 30/04/2014]

1884.13.28

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Collection type
Object
Description
Wood staff with a rounded handle and decoratively carved along the shaft, inlaid with haliotis shell on both sides near the tip [ZM 30/04/2014]
Geographical reference
New Zealand
Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand
North Island Te Wairoa district
Cultural groups
Māori
Date / Period
Date made: Possibly before 1874
Date collected
By 1874
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Haliotis Shell, Process Carved, Process Inlaid
Dimensions
Length: max 967 mm, Diameter: max 44 mm handle
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.13.28 PR Cat other PR nos: 580a
Research and responses

For an account of the 1852-1861 voyage of the Herald, see The Voyage of HMS Herald to Australia and the South-west Pacific under the Command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham, by Andrew David (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press (Melbourne University Press), 1995). [AP 27/4/2001; JC 21 8 2010]

King Huki could be , who was from the Te Wairoa district of the Ngati Kahungunu tribe, North Island. Known for his diplomatic skills of bringing together different tribes through his own inter-marriage and that of his sons and daughters. This form of networking has subsequently sometimes been referred to as 'Te Kupenga a Te Huki' (setting of the net of Te Huki). See chapter 19 of J.H. Mitchell (Tiaki Hikawera Mitira), Takitimu: a History of the Ngati Kahungunu People (1944, Reed Ltd: Wellington). Digital copy available on the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection see: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz//tm/scholarly/name-401531.html [ZM 30/04/2014]

An announcement in the 'Sales by Auction' section of The Times (no. 27,942, Thursday 5 May 1874, p. 16, col. a) of the sale of Admiral Denham's 'ethnographic' collection reads: 'The Collection of Natural History Specimens and Native Weapons, &c., of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Denham, formed during the voyage of H.M.S. Herald. Mr J. C. STEVENS will SELL by AUCTION, at his great Rooms, 33, King-street, Covent-garden, W.C., on Friday, March 6th at half-past 12 precisely, the MUSEUM of NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS and NATIVE WEAPONS and ORNAMENTS, collected by Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Denham in the South Sea Islands, consisting of rare birds, shells, minerals, insects, &c., carved wood spears, clubs, bowls, ivory ornaments, musical instruments, native dresses, &c. Also some stuffed birds in cases, heads and horns, minerals and fossils, &c. On view the morning of sale, and catalogues had.' [JC 21 10 2014]

Associated publications
Referred to in passing on pages 226 and 235 (note 24) of '"African Curiosities" from the Voyage of HMS Avon, 1845–1846: Historiographical Notes on a Forgotten Collection', by Jeremy Coote, in Journal of the History of Collections, Vol. 31, no. 2 (2019), pp. 221–237 [published online on 14 June 2018 at https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhy010 ]. Printout of whole article in RDF: Biographies: Denham (Avon). Note 24: 'This survives at the PRM as 1884.13.28 and is certainly from Denham's voyage to the Pacific on the Herald.' [JC 20 7 2018, 6 9 2019]

Search terms: Ritual and Ceremonial, Figure, Transport and Travel, Staff, Ceremonial Object