MAORI TREASURES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19260, 26 August 1924, Page 8

MAORI TREASURES.

DISPOSAL OF ROSSHILL COLLEO TION. EXTRAORDINARY PRICES, £125 FOR AN AXE HEAD. (Fbom Oub Own Coeeespondent.) LONDON, August 19. Baron Rosehill, nmtn Earl of iNorthesk, , was an ardent collector of prehistoric and ethnographical specimens. He expended large sums of money in Lis efforts to make bis collection representative and complete. il'ifty years ago it was removed from the family mansion at Longwood to Winonester, where the public saw it for the first time, but it was not until 1914 that the collection was displayed in a manner at all adequate to its importance and value. In this year it was placed in the Tudor House Museum, Southampton, and arranged in proper order according to ciass and period. This week, however, the whole collection was put up for auction at Christie’s by order of the trustees of the 10th Earl of Northesk, and the 11th Earl watched the collection sold. There must always be a certain amount of tragedy connected with the disposal ot a great collection. In this case it is not made evident whether the breaking up of a life work is a necessity or an indifference. If one felt that the specimens from New Zealand which were got together 80 years ago without undue expense were being nought in for translerence to the museums of the dominion the disposal of private collections in this country would be a matter to be contemplated with pleasure. As it is the dealers of London seem to be the only people who realise the value of the old Maori trophies, and as the years go by the values creep .up and up. American museums and American collections during the last 10 years have been devoting themselves very seriously to ethnographical specimens of the Pacific, and the tact that dealers are ready to pay as much, as £125 for a greenstone axe undoubtedly means that they know that a market may be found in America. As the values rise, however, .one feels convinced that never will New Zealand itself reclaim these old Maori treasures, for long before the public desire to reclaim them they will be safely housed in the museums of the great capitals of the Northern Hemisphere. At least one has the satisfaction ot knowing that few rare Maori specimens will lie about in private collections, for now that genuine antiques have taken on the value of jewels they will soon get into the hands of those organisations which are able to appraise them at their correct worth. New Zealand will have the satisfaction of knowing that they are safe and appreciated, but no money will ever be able to buy them back again even if, in the course of a century or so, there should develop in the dominion a proper appreciation of art and antiques. A RARE AXE HEAD. The most valuable greenstone specimen which was disposed of this week at Christie’s was an axe head of extraordinary size, the edges crenellated in a unique manner for ornament, and the blade measuring and 3§in wide at the cutting edge. Three or four dealers started bidding for this, and two mounted steadily up to £124. At that point one dropped out, and the article was sold for £125. It went to a dealer who had probably the finest collection of Maori curios in this country outside the British Museum. Amongst the pendants was a translucent green serpentine in the form of a shark’s tooth, which is probably unique. This, with four other unimportant ear-rings, was sold for £lO 10s. Small tikis measuring 2?in and 3in respectively were sold for £6 each. Two others 3,jin and 3 3-Bin, both very early specimens, went for £27 together. One in height and greyish in colour was sold at £2O, and a very fine one s|in made £56. An. exceptionally large tiki—6 Jin —made £'/0, but the highest price was paid for a smaller one—4 l-Bin high— which was exceptional, in that it had a very long protruding tongue, and it was furnished with the original suspenion cord and bone fastner. For tins £72 was paid. £55 FOR A MERE. Prices paid for the meres were £7, £lB, £23, £26, £52, £44, £46, £4B, and £55, the highest figure being paid for one loin long, of exquisite apple green colour with ribbed handle. A mere 16iin long mad© by the Maoris in the days of early settlement, but obviously with European tools, was sold for £5 6s. The highest price paid for a basalt mere of which there was a large number, was £6 ss. Finally a rare article, a compass, by which the craftsmen turned the volute in their carvings, was sold for £34. This article consists of a semi-circular piece of wood, at each end of which a shark’s tooth is inserted.