Late 19th Century Maori Chief and Chieftainess Busts
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A pair of late 19th century large carved kauri gum busts of a Maori chief and chieftainess, naturalistically represented with black staining to their hair and moko, both represented with a muku cloak wrapped to their shoulders, mounted on flat circular ebonised plinth. Some old damage and repair. Heights 245 and 255. Family Provenance: Ex. the vendor's grandparents, 'My father believes they came from the Hewewaka estate, owned by the Maori princess ... My dad is 76'.
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- Kauri - An evergreen conifer tree associated with New Zealand, but also grown in northern Australia, and islands around the Pacific rim including Borneo, Vanuatu and New Guinea. The timber is generally golden in colour, and straight grained without much knotting.
A by-product of the kauri tree was the kauri gum, the fossilised resin extracted from the tree. The gum was obtained through digging, fossicking in treetops, or more drastically, by bleeding live trees. Kauri gum was used in the manufacture of varnishes and other resin-based products, and also crafted into jewellery, keepsakes, and small decorative items.
Kauri forests were prolific in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. European settlers in the 1700 and 1800s realised that the timber from these tall trees with broad trunks would be ideal for ship building and construction and a thriving industry was established harvesting the kauri tree. The forests were substantially reduced, and now the remaining Kauri trees that grow in New Zealand are protected, and there are reserves in various areas of the North Island.
The remaining stands of kauri in New Zealand are under threat from "kauri disease", a microscopic organism that causes dieback in the trees, with vast tracts either dead or dying.
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