Maori Bugle-Flute, New Zealand

This putorino is finely decorated, shaped from a solid piece of wood that is split lengthwise, hollowed out, and tightly wound together with bindings. A wheku face with a gaping mouth frames the center hole between two groupings of fiber cords. The bindings, which were traditionally made of flax in northern and western areas of the North Island and with the roots of the kiekie plant in central and eastern areas, are evenly spaced out along the length of the instrument and are joined together on the back. 

As marked on the piece itself, this putorino was once in the collection of Kenneth Athol Webster (1906-1967). Over the course of the first half of the twentieth century, Webster amassed an impressive collection of Maori art as well as an important collection of New Zealand related manuscripts, books, prints, and ephemera, for which he had a special passion. A great lover of Oceanic art, he strived to encourage general appreciation and knowledge of this material. In a 1951 article in Apollo entitled "Polynesian Art," he wrote: "The judgement of future centuries may be that we, who have striven so long to mimic the visible world of nature in our artistic portrayals, are, at best, but stuffy imitators, and that those who took darkness and light, space and time, and fashioned from them the limitless imaginings of the mind are the true portrayers of man's thoughts in visible and tangible form" (quoted in Waterfield and King, Provenance: Twelve Collectors of Ethnographic Art in England 1760-1990, Paris, 2006, p. 144).

Putorino are unique to Maori culture and were very highly valued. The exact playing method is unknown today, as these instruments disappeared shortly after European contact and written records describing them are scarce. Such instruments can however be played as either a bugle or a flute. The shape and sound of the putorino are said to have been inspired by the female case moth, whose elongated cocoon protects her before emerging to serenade potential mates.