18th C. Maori Jade Hei Tiki, Pounamu

Oceania, New Zealand, Maori. Pounamu (nephrite jade) hei tiki carved into the abstracted human form for which these pendants are famous. The figure's oversized head tilts sharply to the right, its brow ridged, the eyes rendered as raised circular bosses. Below, a compact torso gives way to three-fingered hands resting upon bent thighs, the openwork limbs sculpted with the fluid economy of a master carver. The deep, mottled green stone is patinated by generations of handling, glowing where the surface has been worked to a soft polish. Worn suspended from the neck by men and women alike, the hei tiki was the most highly valued of all Maori personal adornments, a mana-charged heirloom passed from ancestor to descendant; some read the figure as the first man, Tiki, others as a potent emblem of fertility and childbirth. Among the Maori, leadership is hereditary and imbued with mana, the power and prestige that can be embodied and passed down through the artworks associated with a lineage. Hei tiki number among these mana-charged heirlooms, connecting the living to the ancestors of the islands' pre-European past. Some may represent Hine-te-Iwaiwa, the legendary ancestress who exemplifies Maori womanhood and presides over childbirth. In certain Maori origin myths, Tiki was the first man, created by the god Tane; thus any carved human figure, whether of bone, stone, or wood, may be called a tiki. The prefix "hei" denotes something suspended from the neck, as in hei-tiki and hei-matau. Worn by both men and women, hei tiki hang vertically or occasionally sideways, and during a funeral they are displayed near the deceased alongside other family treasures. Many bear personal names and are remembered in tribal songs and oral histories. As the scholar Roger Neich observed, most of a hei tiki's prestige derives from its intimate contact with the great ancestors who wore it, rather than from any inherent magical meaning, and any search for a single "original meaning" is likely futile. This example is carved from inanga, among the most sought-after varieties of pounamu, named for the young whitebait fish on account of its pearly-white, blue-white, or pale green cast. When Captain James Cook inquired about greenstone in Queen Charlotte Sound, he recorded a Maori account that the stone was originally a fish, dragged ashore by a rope until it turned to stone (Brailsford, Greenstone Trails: The Maori and Pounamu, Hamilton, 1996, p. 6). A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 203986

Estimate:$4,000

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