The Scholar's Feast: The Rosman Rubel Collection
The Scholar's Feast: The Rosman Rubel Collection
Maori Long-Handled Hatchet, New Zealand
Lot Closed
April 8, 04:36 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Maori Long-Handled Hatchet
New Zealand
toki kakauroa
Length: 56 in (142 cm)
The handle inscribed in white ink with Hooper inventory number: "H.262"
James T. Hooper, Arundel, Sussex
Christie's, London, Hawaiian and Maori Art from the James Hooper Collection, June 21, 1977, lot 23
Lynda Ridgway Cunningham, New York, acquired at the above auction
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on January 22, 1985
Christie's, London, Hawaiian and Maori Art from the James Hooper Collection, June 21, 1977, lot 23
Lynda Ridgway Cunningham, New York, acquired at the above auction
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on January 22, 1985
Steven Phelps, Art and Artefacts of the Pacific, Africa and the Americas: The James Hooper Collection, London, 1976, p. 60, pl. 28 (illustrated), p. 415, cat. no. 262 (listed)
The toki kakauroa, or long-handled axe, had no precedent in Maori mau rakau, the skilled use of weapons. Like its short-handled counterpart, the patiti, it arose from the introduction of trade-axe heads in the 19th century. These triangular axe-heads, or toki, often ground down to make them lighter, were attached to a long-handled, or kakau roa, shaft, adapting that aspect of the taiaha and tewhatewha and creating a new weapon with a more obviously sinister edge.