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Pedigree & History

Description : STATUE Polynésie centrale Hauteur: 53 cm. (21 in.)
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About the lot N° 171
Title : STATUE
Provenance : Hutchings ?Ernest Ohly, Berkeley Galleries, Londres, acquis en avril 1958Par descendance aux propriétaires actuels
Notes : STATUE Polynésie centrale Hauteur: 53 cm. (21 in.) CENTRAL POLYNESIAN FIGUREThe Ohly ImageThere is a corpus of wood carvings from Central Polynesia which continues to be an enigma. They originate within the triangle formed by the Society, the Austral and the Cook Islands. The grouping together of so many figures from this area in Steven Hooper's exhibition Pacific Encounters (London 2006) seemed to pose more questions than answers. David King, whose book on the London Missionary Society should be published about the same time as this catalogue, has had the same thwarting experience, with two exceptions - see paragraph 6 below.In 1796 four ministers and twenty-six laymen set out from England, on the Duff, to convert the islanders of the Pacific Ocean. This was a private venture by the London Mission (later the London Missionary Society [LMS]. They established missions on Tonga, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands but met with little success. Eventually, in 1812, they baptised Pomare II of Tahiti and this became their base for future activities, with Raiatea their favoured island. It was to Raiatea that A'a (British Museum inv.LMS19) was taken from Rurutu in 1821 for onward transmission to London, and later the thirty-one 'idols' from Aitutaki. This led to the Society Islands being the incorrectly recorded origin of many carvings from the Austral and Cook Islands.If we examine the traits of the Ohly figure it is closest in overall form to the one in Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland, with the arms carved free of the slightly distended body and falling from square shoulders, an ovoid head with triangular chin, long nose and domed forehead. As with the present lot, the Basel figure is carved on a post, albeit of a different shape (see Ed. Oliver Wick and Antje Denner, Visual Encounters, Beyeler Foundation, Basel, 2009, Section IX, no.5). The Basel figure was admitted to the Museum (inv.Vc1521) der Kulturen in 1981 from the Basel Mission which was founded in 1815. It has a label in German giving it a Tahitian provenance.Another figure, better known, also on a post and with similar stance, is in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow (see Peter Buck, Arts and Crafts of the Cook Islands, 1944 reprinted 1971, p.342, fig.212), Steven Hooper, op. cit. no.197 and Visual Encounters, no.4).Pierced ears are not usually found in Polynesian figures, but a flywhisk finial figure, with an 18th century Tahitian provenance, in the British Museum has very similar ears (Hooper, op.cit. p.175, fig.127). In fact the pose with the hands on the abdomen, with or without three or four fingers, is common in figures from the Society Islands. The same characteristic is seen in figures from the Cook Islands, such as the figure from Aitutaki in the Ethnographic Museum (inv.190), Munich, which shares the same low slung abdomen with the Ohly figure (Beyeler, op.cit. Section IX fig. 2). The contented expression, with the treatment of the eyes and mouth similar to the Ohly example, is found on the finial of an Austral/Society Islands fly whisk handle in the muse d'Histoire naturelle, Lille (Océanie, La découverte du paradis, Paris, 1997, p.160 and p.161, fig. 145). W.O. Oldman had several enigmatic figures in his collection which are now in New Zealand. Dunedin has no. 436, said to represent Terongo and his three sons, which Oldman bought from E Little in 1922 (The Oldman Collection of Polynesian Artifacts, 2004, Plate 4). William Ellis (Polynesian Researches, 1829, facsimile 1967, p. 220 and frontispiece Vol II) attributes this figure to Tahiti, but Buck points out the similarities to the rough Aitutaki figure drawn by John Williams (Missionary Enterprises, London, 1837, p.64). Also on display in Dunedin is Oldman no. 437 (Plate 4) for which David King has kindly told us that he has found evidence in the archives of the L.M.S., School of Oriental and African Studies, (SOAS), London, that it was collected by Williams, Bourne and Papeiha between 9 and 28 July 1823 on Aitutaki, the same month as the Williams carving.Ernest Ohly inherited the Berkeley Galleries on Davies Street, London on the death of his father, William in 1955. Born in 1920 in Frankfurt, he went to school in Switzerland and joined his father in London after the War, working at the gallery and living in Barnet among the artists his father had grouped about him, many of them Australians. Founded by William in 1941, the gallery sold antiquities from the Far East, paintings and sculpture as well as Tribal Art and modern ceramics. It is described in Provenance Twelve Dealers and Collectors in England 1760-1990 (Waterfield and King, 2006 reprinted 2010). Ernest ran the gallery until 1977 but his interest in Far Eastern art, tribal art and ceramics never ceased until his sudden death on 8 April 2008. He was a private man with a 'good eye', who visited the saleroom views with the sculptor Gunther Bloch.His family have an inventory he made in the 1770s of the things he took home to Blackheath. In it is "No. 33 A Tahitian figure on peg support, bought from Hutchings, 21in. high, April 1958 35". It also had a gallery number B445. There is no record of a missionary called Hutchings, but there is a Sidney Hutchins and a John J. K. Hutchin, both of whom worked for the L.M.S. in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. The L.M.S archives hold a few reports and letters from Sidney Hutchins who served in the 1920s, and a great many reports and letters from John J.K. Hutchin, who served from 1882 for nearly three decades, spoke Rarotongan fluently and translated texts. He and his wife appreciated local life and were befriended by the Cook Islanders. However progress was never straightforward. A report Hutchin wrote on 8 January 1904 includes "There is still much superstition, and ignorance among them Just as the rays of the sun struggle to reach the ground, through the thick tangle of the bush, so superstition, ignorance and animalism hinder the progress of many in the spiritual life". Alcohol was a terrible influence on the locals, especially in the northern Cooks. The Mission's ship the John Williams visited the Society and Cook Islands and Samoa regularly, also the Austral Islands, New Zealand and New Guinea where there were mission stations. Most of the pastors in the islands were native to those or adjacent islands, but the bond between all members of the Mission was very strong. As late as 1916 an anonymous report from the Cook Islands to LMS headquarters in London reported the death of a native pastor, Obeda, at the age of 95, describing him as "the last surviving link in the Southern Islands with the heathen days. He was born in the year following the introduction of the Gospel to Aitutaki, and before Rarotonga had been discovered by John Williams". How Hutchin or Hutchins acquired the figure is a mystery.Ernest Ohly never disputed the Tahitian origin that came with his figure, and we only wish we had discussed it more fully with him when he was alive, instead of just admiring it. Meanwhile its exact origins remain an enigma.Hermione Waterfield
Christie's, auctioneer, Paris, FR It's free to register now to view!
Sale title : Art Océanien, Africain et d'Amérique du Nord
Sale date : 14 Jun 2011 It's free to register now to view!
Sale Reference : Live Sale

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