3-057-690 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Two portraits of Maoris, c1768-c1780, 1769. Head and shoulders portraits of two Maoris with tattoos, earrings and elaborate hairstyles. They wear combs, probably of whalebone, ear pendants - almost certainly of nephrite - and a woven flax cloak. Their hair is arranged in the topknot style popular at the time, and faces are tattooed with designs typical of those used in the northern part of New Zealand. Round their necks they wear rei puta, pendants made from whale tooth. One, Te Kuukuu, is a chief's son. From a work on the voyages of Captain James Cook.