**Originally Listed At $1500**

Oceania, New Zealand, Maori culture, ca. 1875 CE. A handmade sculpture from an unusual material, kauri gum or kapia, a fossilized resin from coniferous trees native to the North Island. The bust is finely modeled as a young woman, her features soft, and rounded, a neutral expression on her face. Her chin is incised and painted with a linear tattoo, her eyes have black and white pigments added, and her thick hair flows over her shoulders, mixed with black soot to contrast with the umber hues. The sap from kauri trees hardens upon exposure to air and traditional Maori people would collect the resin from the ground to use as flammable fire starters, an ingredient in tattoo ink, and for carvings or jewelry; the fresh gum was also used for chewing. Size: 2.5" W x 3.5" H (6.4 cm x 8.9 cm)

By 1850 the gum and wood from kauri trees was a huge export to Europe and the Americas for use as varnish and timbers in ship building, and very quickly the once abundant gum lying exposed on the ground had been used up. Kauri trees were then purposefully cut to ooze sap, which damaged and killed the threatened forests. Digging for fossilized gum became a hard way of life for many Maori in the late 19th century; the gum was sold to gum merchants or carved into sculptures or jewelry by the Maori to sell themselves. Few pieces of kauri gum remain intact like this example, at the time its artistic value was not as noteworthy as its commercial use. This is a rare example of this powerful material that was once an invaluable resource for Maori that is rarely available today due to Western exploitation.

This piece was formerly part of the Arne Coward (1920 to 1979) collection, a notorious dealer of the macabre and grotesque; his specialty was torture devices, and most famously the Nuremberg torture collection. His antique and oddity shop in Honolulu Hawaii was transformed into the "Museum Macabre" in 1975 for a few years before his death in 1979 when most of his collection was auctioned and sold. The most noteworthy item was the bisected head of the serial killer Peter Kuten, which was purchased by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! This resin sculpture is probably one of the more appealing pieces from his collection.

Provenance: private Southern California, USA collection, bestowed 2006; ex-J. Malter collection, Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired before 2006; ex-Arne Coward collection, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.

Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.

#167829

Abrasions throughout; chips and nicks to high pointed areas and hair. Larger chips to the base. Chin tattoo is slightly worn but visible.