comb

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type: comb
Museum number: Oc,+.6159
Description: Whalebone comb, (heru iwi/paraoa) with eight tines, rounded top, flat, one side-edge with openwork rauponga manaia in centre.
Producer name: Made by: Te Kani-a-Takirau
Production ethnic group: Made by: Māori
Production date: 19thC (before 1839)
Production place: Made in: Tolaga Bay (likely)
Excavator/field collector: Field Collection by: Thomas Bateman
Findspot: Found/Acquired: New Zealand
Materials: whalebone
Technique: carved
Dimensions: Height: 23 centimetres; Width: 10.50 centimetres; Depth: 0.50 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Starzecka 2010: Comb, heru iwi/paraoa. Whalebone comb: 8 tines, rounded top, flat, one side-edge with openwork rauponga manaia in centre. Inscribed in pencil: ‘Made by Te Kanni Te Kirau [Te Kani-a-Takirau] of Uwama [Uawa], or Tologoa [Tolaga] Bay in 1893 & presented to F.W.C. Sturm.’ Provenance: Presented by A.W. Franks, 29 June 1893 (Bateman Coll.). References: Edge-Partington 1969 ii.1: 223.1.
Bibliographic references: Starzecka, Neich & Pendergrast 2010 / The Māori collections of the British Museum (Taonga Māori in the British Museum) (no. 434, pl. 81)
Location: Not on display
Associated places: Associated with: Tolaga Bay
Acquisition name: Donated by: Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: Thomas Bateman; Previous owner/ex-collection: Sturm, Friedrich Wilhelm Christian
Acquisition date: 1893
Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Registration number: Oc,+.6159
Additional IDs: CDMS number: Oc1893C2.6159 (old CDMS no.)
Conservation: Treatment: 24 Oct 1995

Free entry

Opening hours