OTAGO MUSEUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 2

OTAGO MUSEUM

SOME NEW EXHIBITS LOAN COLLECTION OF METAL WORK. RECENT GIFTS ON DISPLAY During the past few weeks several new and interesting exhibits have oeen presented to the Otago Museum to swell the already comprehensive displays in the native curio department, but the most outstandirtg addition to the attractions of this popular institution has been the collection ol: metal work from the Victoria and Albert Museum, lent under the auspices of the British Empire National Art Loan Collection Society, which owes its eJ=tablishment in large measure to the efforts of Sir Percy Sargood. Perhaps the most notable feature of the collection is the case of wroughtiron work by English, German, french, Italian and Spanish craftsmen. Nearly all the exhibits date back to the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, and they comprise wall brackets, balusters, panels, door-knobs and knockers. As examples of the cunning and skill of the artist in so unsympathetic and unresponsive a metal as cold iron they are outstanding, suggesting a degree of patience and painstaking effort that is almost foreign, to this machine age. In another case may be seen Some excellent samples of electrotypes in bronze and genuine wrought bronze, most of which are the work -of Italian craftsmen of two and three hundred years ago. These exhibits include ewers, statuettes and an interesting collection of medallions and plaques. The art of the silversmith and the goldsmith from the fifteenth to the eighteenth Century is admirably illustrated by yet another showcase which contains flagons cups, and a variety of smaller articles such as spoons, maces and covers. These are. nearly all electrotypes of famous art treasures, carefully and faithfully wrought to emphasise the beauty of design and line of the work of the English smiths of that period. A Byzantine Manuscript The Rockefeller-McCormick New Testament, of the University of Chicago, comprising replicas of a very important Byzantine manuscript, is another interesting feature On view at the present time. This collection has been lent by Mr McGregor Walmsley, of Christchurch, and presents in perfect "detail by means of Austrian colour printing a perfect reproduction of a version -of New Testament written in the Palace of Blachernae at Constantinople about the year 1265. The exhibit consists of three volumes, one of which is devoted to the text, a second to miniatures illustrative of Byzantine life of the period, and a third to the actual replicas of the manuscript. Native Curios Among the native curios that have been added to the displays are a bow and about 50 arrows from Bourgainville, in the Solomon Islands. These were the gift of Mr A. C. McGeorge. The arrows are beautifully etched, some of the designs of the heads being based on the human face and others on purely geometric lines. From Mr G. Knox, the Museum has received two adzes from the Owaka district, one' of which is of greenstone and well above the usual size. Mr Leslie Locherbie has now completed the excavation of the site at King’s Rock, in the Gatlins district, and the material secured by him has how been placed on view in the various sections of the Maori display. The site is a small but important one, and Mr Locherbie is now engaged on the completion of a fully, illustrated account of his researches.

Mr T. A. Chappe Hall, who was responsible for the restoration of the Maori canoe and the meeting house, is now at work on the completion of the Maori storehouse or pataka. The work involves the carving of two sides of the building, each of which is composed of kauri plaiiks, 40 inches wide and 12 feet long. The design and liguring of the carving is following the style of those of the pataka in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. Mr Hall considers that it is the finest example of carving that he has yet been entrusted with, and he anticipates that its completion will occupy a considerable time.

Mr W. Dowie has presented the Museum with a square of tapa cloth from Samoa, and also a very large and very fine fish hook point from Karitane. fashioned from the tooth of a sea-lion.