Lot 278
New Zealand - James Cowan - Maori Portraits - Gottfried Lindauer
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 17 May 2017 at 12:00 BST
Description
Sketches of Old New Zealand. Maori Biographies. Descriptive Catalogue of Maori Portraits painted by Herr G. Lindauer. Auckland: Printed for H.E. Partridge, 1901. First edition, 8vo, vignette illustrations, original printed boards, a few spots to boards; Cowan, James Another copy of the same work, with 46 contemporary photographs of the original paintings pasted or tipped-in throughout, photographs somewhat faded, occasional small areas of text adhering to image, notes in ink to endpapers and majority of portrait photographs identified to the verso in pencil or ink, publisher's morocco, gilt lettered, spine perished, contents loose, with loosely inserted 1) a typed copy letter from St. Louis, 24/11/1904 to Mr Partridge from F.E. Donne, informing the recipient of the Gold Medal awarded for his Maori paintings at the St. Louis World's Fair, &c.; 2) copy on 3 leaves typed with picture titles and sizes, corresponding with the "Contents" list in Sketches of Old New Zealand 3) a typewritten letter to Mr U.F. McCabe from H.E. Partridge discussing the conditions under which, in the future, he might sell his collection; 4) folding pedigree of Kahungunu, on linen-backed paper, [c.1940]; Centennial of the Treaty of Waitangi, 6 February 1940, Souvenir Programme. 1940, 8vo, wrappers, worn and detached
Footnote
Note: Gottfried Lindauer (1839-1926) was a Czech and later a New Zealand artist famous for his portraits, especially that of the Maori. He moved to Auckland in the 1870's where he met businessman Henry Partridge who, over 30 years, commissioned from Lindauer numerous portraits of eminent Maori, as well as large-scale depictions of traditional Maori life and customs. Many prominent Maori chiefs commissioned his work, which accurately records their facial tattoos, clothing, ornaments and weapons.
His life-size portraits were exhibited by Sir Walter Buller at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886, and in 1901 Partridge, Lindauer's earliest and most important patron, opened a gallery in Auckland which featured 40 of Lindauer's Maori portraits. By the time Partridge sold his Lindauer collection to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1915, there were 62 portraits. The historian James Cowan (1870-1943), who wrote the descriptive catalogue of the exhbition, described the collection as 'Unrivalled in the world' and a record of the 'old order' which in his opinion 'passed away forever' with King Tawhiao's death in 1894.