1886.1.1461

Collection type

Object

Description

Wooden staff, widening out to a flat blade at one end, tapering to a point at the other carved in the shape of a face with protruding tongue. [ZM 02/04/2014]

Long description

Carved wooden staff or taiaha, which widens out to a flat blade at one end, the other tapers to a point carved in the shape of a two-sided face with a protruding tongue and inlaid with haliotis shells for eyes. Cloth and plant fibre yarn, inserted with feathers, are wound around the staff just below the carved face. [ZM 02/04/2014]

Geographical reference

New Zealand

Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand

Cultural groups

Māori

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1878

Date collected

By 1878

Acquisition information

Transferred: 13/02/1886

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Haliotis Shell, Material Bird Feather, Material Textile, Process Carved, Process Woven, Process Inlaid

Dimensions

Depth: max 60 mm, Width: max 158 mm, Length: max 2143 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1886.1.1461 Other numbers: AM 1461

Research and responses

* There is a note in the Ramsden collectors volume stating 'Retrospective numbers written in pencil down left hand column June 1975 E.S.G. Collated with A.M. but considerable problems encountered. All Ramsden seem to be in A.M.' Note that this exercise may have been the source of the confusion that occurred during Elizabeth Sandford Gunn's work on the Ashmolean collection with regard to numbers. In some instances, these numbers SEEM to have been used to number the objects (wrongly). [AP 13/7/99] This object is not mentioned in Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry - Ramsden coll pages 223 - 255 [AP 21/7/99]

Search terms: Insignia, Status, Staff, Status Object