Jewellery box

item details

NameJewellery box

ProductionUnknown; maker/artist; 1916; New Zealand

Classificationboxes, souvenirs

Materialswood, pāua (abalone shell), ivory, oil paint

Materials SummaryMarquetry work in a variety of New Zealand woods, oil painting.

Techniquesmarquetry, oil painting

DimensionsOverall: 145mm (width), 80mm (height), 215mm (length)

Registration NumberGH022533

Credit linePurchased 2012

Overview

Enemy craft

This jewellery box is example of the type of handicraft work produced by German and Austro-Hungarian internees on Somes/Matiu Island during the First World War - the island itself is painted inside the lid of the jewellery box. Items of this type were made as gifts to family members or sold to earn pocket money for the internees.

Under the War Regulations Act 1914, 4000 Germans and 2000 Austro-Hungarians were registered as 'enemy aliens' - even those who were naturalised. The act also defined men who were of military age as security threats, who as such could be detained by the Minister of Defence. Altogether around 450 enemy aliens were imprisoned on Somes/Matiu Island in Wellington Harbour and Motuihe in the Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, during World War I, an indication of a prevailing atmosphere of intense anti-German feeling, which sometimes became hysterical.