Antiquariat Schwarzfischer - International League of Antiquarian ...

41. (New Zealand - Maorie) -
Robley, Horatio Gordon:
Moko; or Maorie Tattooing. London: Chapmann
and Hall, 1896; 4 to, pp. xxi, xxii blank,1 leaf, 216
p. of text; with half title, photographic portraitfrontispiece,
plus 180 illustrations from drawings
by the author and from photographs; contemporary
full green buckram, spine with gilt lettering and
gilt stamped initials on lower right corner of upper
board; library stamps (on frontispiece verso, upper
margin of title, title verso and at the end of indextext);
all these stamps deleted; only half title and
title with minor stains to margins, text rather clean,
illustrations flawless; a very good copy on thick
paper and with wide margins; a very scarce firstedition
copy. 3.100,--
Major-General Horatio Gordon Robley (1840 - 1930) was soldier, artist, and collector. In 1863 his regiment left Burma for New Zealand. Here he
remained for 19 months during which his amazing series of sketches of Maori life were executed. In New Zealand Robley had many opportunities
of demonstrating his talent for drawing. In the Dominion Museum, Wellington, there are seventy paintings by Robley - remarkable historical record
of the military occupation of Tauranga und supplying besides many intimate and casual details of early Maori life. Of his two New Zealand
books „Moko; or Maori Tattooing“ is the more outstanding. His acknowledged object, it has been said, was to put together a text to support the
specialised record he had drawn of tattoo patterns und of his collection of dried heads - (William John Phillipps, Dominion Museum, Wellington).
Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, ed. by A. H. McLintock, published in 1966.
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