photographic print(black and white)
- Museum number
- Oc,B12.5
- Description
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Photograph (black and white); three Maori objects; a wooden and paua shell kumete (food presentation bowl), ornately carved with two squatting figures serving as handles on both sides of bowl, handle on top comprised of a carving of two anthropomorphic figures whose heads join in the middle of the handle; two smaller waka huia boxes (feather boxes) on either side.
Albumen print
- Production date
- 19thC(late)
- Dimensions
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Height: 21.50 centimetres (mount)
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Height: 15.30 centimetres (photo)
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Width: 27 centimetres (mount)
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Width: 20.50 centimetres (photo)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Patoromu Tamatea began to carve this large kumete in 1865 at the request of Sir George Grey. However, the bowl was unfinished due to Patoromu and some of his iwi being captured by Te Kooti and taken to Tahora, where the bowl was hidden in a totara tree. When Patoromu and the other prisoners were rescued by Ropata Wahawaha and Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, he retrieved the kumete and finished it. By this time Grey had left New Zealand, and the bowl eventually passed into the hands of Captain Gilbert Mair.
The kumete arrived in the Auckland Museum as part of the Mair collection. It was made into a coin box and positioned at the museum entrance, where it was used to collect donations. During his visit to New Zeland, Paul Gauguin sketched Patoromu's kumete and subsequently incorporated it into two of his paintings, 'Still life with flowers and mangoes' (1901) and 'Te Rerioa' (1897).
This dark brown matai kumete is supported by two squatting figures (one naturalistic and one wheku). On the lid are two projecting back to back figures, reclining so that the heads touch. To either side of these is a low-relief koruru head. The entire kumete, including the figures, has been carved with rauponga designs. Paua shell insets have been used in the eyes of all the figures, and around the rim of both the lid and bowl itself. A metal hinge and lock has been attached to the kumete. The kumete has been signed, "NA PATOROMU" on the neck of the naturalistic figure.
Measurements: 56 x 61 x 38cm
Source: Captain Gilbert Mair
Acquisition date: 1890
Locality: Rotoiti
Region: Rotorua
[Ko Tawa database, collection of Capt Gilbert Mair: Auckland Museum touring exhibition]
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Maori treasure bowl and boxes collected by Captain Gilbert Mair, acquired and put on display by Auckland Museum in 1890.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc,B12.5