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Lot 39
Fine Maori Canoe Bailer, New Zealand
21 November – 5 December 2024, 12:00 PST
Online, Los AngelesSold for US$28,160 inc. premium
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Fine Maori Canoe Bailer, New Zealand
tiheru
Wood, paua shell
Length 15 1/4in (38.7cm)
Provenance
Max Willborg Collection, Stockholm
Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1987, Lot 18
Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection, Honolulu
California Private Collection
Literature
Kaeppler, Adrienne, Polynesia - The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2010, fig. 442
Maori canoe bailers were probably associated with birds and manaia--strange beaked figures often identified as a sea monster, lizard, bird-man, ghostly spirit, symbol of mana power, or merely a human tiki. In profile, the bailer looks like a floating seabird, the handle appearing like the neck and stylized head of a manaia.
Deftly carved from one piece of hard wood with openwork carving of a manaia head inset with paua shells as eyes at the handled end, the handle with an incised spinal cord design, the rounded scoop with a slight concave end; rich, shiny dark brown patina with wear indicative of significant age and traditional use.
Wood, paua shell
Length 15 1/4in (38.7cm)
Provenance
Max Willborg Collection, Stockholm
Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1987, Lot 18
Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection, Honolulu
California Private Collection
Literature
Kaeppler, Adrienne, Polynesia - The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2010, fig. 442
Maori canoe bailers were probably associated with birds and manaia--strange beaked figures often identified as a sea monster, lizard, bird-man, ghostly spirit, symbol of mana power, or merely a human tiki. In profile, the bailer looks like a floating seabird, the handle appearing like the neck and stylized head of a manaia.
Deftly carved from one piece of hard wood with openwork carving of a manaia head inset with paua shells as eyes at the handled end, the handle with an incised spinal cord design, the rounded scoop with a slight concave end; rich, shiny dark brown patina with wear indicative of significant age and traditional use.
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