Lot 68
HEI-TIKI PENDANT
NEW ZEALAND
£3,000
African & Oceanic Art, Antiquities and Natural History
Auction: 5 May 2020 at 12:00 BST
Description
nephrite, the ornament with carved features, the subtly head angled and arms shown held towards the sides
Dimensions
Footnote
Provenance:
Rhodes Family, New Zealand.
Note:
Of highly unusual construction, this tiki nonetheless possesses an interesting provenance. It descends from the Rhodes family of central-eastern South Island. The family was already well established in the area by the mid-19th century before immigrants from the west began to arrive in larger numbers.
The family were initially based at a whaling station on the Banks Peninsular in the early 1840’s. The eldest brother and former merchant mariner William Barnard Rhodes (1807-1878) invited his younger brothers to join him. His siblings George (1816-1864) and Robert, left England to join the family business before subsequently migrating further south to the Timaru area in 1851 to set up a large scale sheep farming operation. George died in 1864 and his son George Arthur Edgar Rhodes (1859-1922) went to become mayor of Christchurch. William died in 1878 as one of the richest men in New Zealand.
