WhaleLIBRARY

A whale-tooth rei puta crosses museum collections

The British Museum holds a Māori rei puta pendant made of whale tooth and pāua shell, registration Oc1962,04.1. Its recorded chain of ownership includes Sir Jacob Epstein’s collection, a 1961 Christie’s sale and acquisition by the museum in 1962. The catalogue records Roger Neich’s suggestion that it may have been refashioned from a Fijian tabua. This is a valuable example of trans-Pacific material movement and interpretive uncertainty, not evidence of a Kāpiti origin.