A Fine Maori New Zealand Greenstone ‘Manaia’ or Pendant Charm .
A Fine Maori New Zealand Greenstone ‘Manaia’ or Pendant Charm .
18 th or early 19 th Century .
Size : 7 cm high, 5 cm wide – 2¾ ins high , 2 ins wide
18 th or early 19 th Century .
Size : 7 cm high, 5 cm wide – 2¾ ins high , 2 ins wide
Nephrite , New Zealand’s form of Jade , was the most precious possession of the Maori and many months were required to make these sculptures with the then existing techniques of drilling and abrasion with water and sand .
The humanistic characterization found in Heitiki has been almost entirely abstracted in this small sculpture . It has become the ultimate stylization of the human profile carved in the hard and intractable medium of ‘Pounamu’ or Maori jade .
The humanistic characterization found in Heitiki has been almost entirely abstracted in this small sculpture . It has become the ultimate stylization of the human profile carved in the hard and intractable medium of ‘Pounamu’ or Maori jade .
A Fine Maori New Zealand Greenstone ‘Manaia’ or Pendant Charm .
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