Kiwiana folk art collection going under the hammer next week
AUCKLAND: A distinctly Kiwi collection of New Zealand folk art from the estate of a leading connoisseur is going under the hammer.
Rare sculptures of striking wahine, kauri gum busts of Maori chiefs, carved pipes and treasure boxes, early colonial pottery, maps, and even a Jim Beam ‘‘Hone Heke’’ bourbon decanter all feature in the Cordy’s auction house sale in Auckland next week.
The remarkable collection of the late Ngaire Hart is already attracting widespread attention from fellow collectors and keen Kiwiana admirers.
Auctioneer Andrew Grigg said it was an ‘‘exceptional’’ and ‘‘special’’ sale that represents New Zealand’s relatively short history.
‘‘Raising these items on a pedestal is a celebration of who we are and where we have come from; they speak of us,’’ he said.
As an antique dealer, adventurous world traveller and photographer of nature and portraiture, as well as being a keen tramper and amateur botanist, Ms Hart was a ‘‘brave and passionate collector’’ who was not bound by socalled fashionable collecting. .
Mr Grigg said she would hunt out makers who created objects for their own satisfaction, along with historical commercially produced items that spoke of New Zealand and resonated with her, amassing a vast collection of unique artefacts.
Ms Hart, who died in 2018 aged 65, would carefully curate her finds before filling her family home at Port Waikato with them.
More than 455 pieces are featured in next Tuesday’s auction, amounting to most of Ms Hart’s beloved collection.
It is understood her family has retained a few selected treasures.
Wharetana pottery ware and pieces carved by famed New Zealand artist and craftswoman Jane Brenkley (18821973) with Maori motifs form the major pillars of the sale, including a unique folk art diorama of a Maori pa, signed and dated 1939. It could fetch as much as $4000. New Zealand’s history of arts and crafts show ‘‘a real cando attitude’’, Mr Grigg said, which is exemplified by Brenkley, who raised 11 children, worked as a midwife, and helped on the family farm, all the while producing a prolific body of work.
‘‘Ngaire was addicted to Brenkley’s creative spirit and amassed one of the largest private collections of her work,’’ Mr Grigg said.
‘‘This, together with her unique collection of Crown Lynn Wharetana ‘Maori Art Pottery’ and other items makes this the most significant collection of its type to be offered at auction. No museum holds such a body of these works.’’
Other artefacts include a late 19thcentury, large Peter Hutson & Co sculpted pottery figure of a ‘‘Maori wahine’’, which is estimated to fetch $10,000$14,000, and a rare Thomas Norman Lovatt glazed terracotta pottery bust of the Maori chief Pomare II (Ngapuhi) who was a signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi.