Private Collections

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Private artefact collections are a feature of New Zealand archaeology right up until the present. Many of these were aquired by presentation or purchase and these are still ways of their accumulation today. In the past, when found Maori artefacts were personal property fossicking was a way of accumulation.

Sampson (2003) gives an insight into the motivations and behaviours of collectors who operated in Otago.

Many of these collections have found their way to musuems in whole, or in part after dispersal.

Some European artefact collections - particularly of bottles - have grown the same way. The advent of the protection of archaeological sites dating from before 1800 AD under the Historic Places Act has limited some sources, but found European objects are still finding their way to private collections.

This page is to highlight some of the important collections which are part of our historic heritage.

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Reference

Samson, J. O. 2003. Cultures of collecting: Maori curio collecting in Murihiku, 1865-1975 A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

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Listing here does not preclude a future page dedicated to a collection.

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Willets Collection

Oldman Colleciton

Knapp Collection

George Grey Collection

Bollons Collection

Murdoch Collection

Okains Bay Musuem / Thacker Collection

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Mair Collection - Gilbert Mair along with his father and brother was an important figure in colonial New Zealand and in the New Zealand wars. He accumulated many artefacts in the course of his contact with Maori, many from in the Bay of Plenty and particularly Rotorua. The collection is now largely in the Auckland Musuem.

Tapsell, P. 2006 Ko Tawa, Maori treasures of New Zealand. Bateman, Auckland.

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Kelly Tarlton Collection - Tarlton was an adventurer / entrepeneur focused on the marine world. His diving activities concentrated on shipwrecks. One outcome was the display of the material recovered in a private museum built within Tui, a beached former sugar lighter at Paihia. It operated as a museum from 1970-2002. A key part of the collection was the Rothchild treasure recovered by Tarlton from the SS Tasmania wreck at Mahia in 1975. Rothchild was a jeweler. The Museum was robbed in 2000 by a notorious career criminal. The $300,000 of material taken including the Rothchild material has never been recovered. The museum was sold in 2002 by Tarlton's widow and the collections dispersed by sale.

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Bramley Collection - A collection from the south head of the Manukau Harbour collected by the Bramley family while resident at Wattle Bay. The collection's strengths are archaic material and fishing sinkers. The collection was bequeathed to Auckland Museum.

Brambley, Mavis 1966. Sea Cockies of the Manukau. Reed.

Prickett, N. 1987. The Bramley collection of Maori artefacts. Auckland Museum. Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum 24: 1 -66.

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Collier Collection A collection made by the Collier family largely around Dunedin in the 1920s. The collection is in family ownership.

Harsant, W. 1986 The Collier collection: stone and bone artefacts from Otago. Archaeology in New Zealand 29(3):146-159.

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Wagener Collection - The collection resulted from the activities of Wlfred Wagener spanning colonial, farming technology and Maori material. Some of the material came to the collection via a collection of Northy Saunders. Important archaic Maori material was from the Houhora Archaic site. The collection was housed in a private museum at Houhora but an arson attack and tour coaches ceasing to visit left it unviable. The greater part of the museum was dipersed by sale held by Webbs in Auckland in 2003. Some material was aquired by Auckland Museum. The local archaic material has been retained by the family who have hopes of reopening a small focused museum.

Anon, 2003. The Wagener Museum Sale (Catalogue), Peter Webb Galeries, Auckland.

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