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1923.87.14

Canoe baler, carved with scrolling and geometric patterns on the back and one end, the handle is carved with a face. [SM 24/11/2008]

On display

1923.87.14

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Collection type
Object
Description
Canoe baler, carved with scrolling and geometric patterns on the back and one end, the handle is carved with a face. [SM 24/11/2008]
Long description
Canoe baler, carved with scrolling and geometric patterns on the back and one end, the handle is carved with a face. The face carved onto the handle has eyes that are inlaid with haliotis shell. [SM 24/11/2008]
Geographical reference
New Zealand
Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand
North Island Kapiti Coast near Paekakariki
Cultural groups
Māori
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1866
Date collected
30 November 1886
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1923
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Haliotis Shell, Process Carved, Process Inlaid
Dimensions
Height 90 mm, Width 240 mm, Length 485 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1923.87.14
Research and responses

In 1978, David Simmons recorded the holdings of Māori material in a number of museums in Europe and North America including, in May 1978, the Pitt Rivers Museum. (For copies of his notes and related correspondence, see RDF: Researchers: Simmons.) In 1996, Simmons put together the ‘draft catalogues’ he had prepared, depositing copies in, at least, the National Library of New Zealand / Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and the British Museum. The ‘draft catalogue’ of the Māori material in the PRM, which includes photocopies of some of the relevant catalogue index cards and annotations supplied by PRM assistant curator Lynne Williamson in 1982, was included in ‘Draft Catalogues of Maori Material in English Museums II. Prepared by David Simmons from records made in 1978… Compiled in Auckland in 1996’. It is now widely accepted that Simmons’s assertions about the provenance and history of individual Māori objects are not to be trusted without further evidence and/or documentation. Nevertheless, as the entries in this document have been referred in the literature, in July 2016 I obtained from the British Museum scans of the pages devoted to the PRM’s collections (numbered by hand as pages 43 to 62), printing out a copy for the RDF. For the entry for this object, see page 57 (page 13 of Simmons's original list). [JC 28 7 2016]

Search terms: Navigation, Carving, Canoe Baler

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