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H. 10-12. NEW ZEALAND BOXES carved with a stone chisel. C. W. Nockells, 1833.

The Maori of New Zealand made many wooden objects which were decorated with intricate carvings in high and low relief. The objects often had specific uses and the subjects carved on them had particular meaning to the Maori. Objects were carved because it enabled the carvings to be carried with the people as they travelled or went about their daily occupations. Maori chiefs, and sometimes important women had particular carved treasure boxes in which they put valuable items.The style of carving on Maori objects often involves complex patterns which cover the object, and are the result of great skill and investment of time. This is an oval lidded box, which was made for a Maori chief for storing the feathers which he wore in his hair as a headdress. The box has been carved from one piece of wood, and decorated using a stone chisel and painted in red ochre. The box was often hung from a roof beam so that the carved bottom could be seen. This type of female motif on the box is a conventional one, occurring on numerous Maori objects. The decoration on treasure boxes varies, so that the significance of carvings of females on this box, which used by a male of high position, for his possessions which depicted his rank, may have particular meaning. The box dates from the early 19th century and was collected during a tour of Polynesia by a European traveller, C.W. Nockells. The base and lid are decorated with a relief pattern, which comprises a cross shape carved as a linked chain, with concentric curves filling the space around. At each end of the box there is a handle in the form of a female figure, the body carved in low relief and the head as a free standing sculpture. The detail photograph shows one of these handle. It depicts a female figure, the body in low relief and the head a three-dimensonal carving. The figure has tatooed arms and legs and is explicitly sexual, with the genitals fully diplayed. The head depicts the features, but concentrates on the tongue, which is out and has been decorated with concentric stripes.

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H. 10-12. NEW ZEALAND BOXES carved with a stone chisel. C. W. Nockells, 1833.]]> ABDUA:4148]]>