An exceptionally fine patiti, a short fighting hatchet with a European axe blade. The superbly carved handle is decorated with twin manaia heads at the base of the blade and a larger manaia is carved at the butt (manaia is the messenger traveling between the realms of the ancestors and the living). A hole is pierced through the base of the handle for the wrist thong. The handle shows extensive wear and the two sides are of a different coloration. The honey colored side shows the deep, original patination due to handling. The reverse is bleached white by the sun – it seems probable that this axe was exhibited on a wall facing a sunny window in a European collection for many decades. The iron axe-head is not of the soft iron type that was manufactured purposely for trade - it is a hardened, iron working blade. Maori People, New Zealand, Polynesia. A European iron axe head marked H.H. MORTIMER & CO. and bone from the lower jaw of the Sperm whale (physeter catodon). 34.2 x 14.9 x 2 cm. Late 18th to very early 19th century.

Ex coll. : Baron Freddy Rollin (1919-2001), New York, Brussels. There are the remains of an old paper label and the N° 296 is painted in red on the rear of the blade.
Ref.:
• Hamilton, Augustus : MAORI ART. New Zealand Institute Wellington, Fergusson & Mitchell, Dunedin, 1896. Harmer Johnson, NY, re-print 1977.
• Mead, Sidney Moko, (ed.): TE MAORI. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. 1984.
A weapon of this type and especially of this quality could only belong to a warrior of noble blood. The patiti was carried in the man’s girdle and could be either thrown with great power and precision or used in hand to hand combat. The classical style of the carving, the presence of a working blade and the amount of wear are all indicative of a very early post-contact date that can be situated around the arrival of Captain Cook in October of 1769 and before the influx of the first colonial migrants prior to 1820.