Korowai (cloak)

This korowai has lost most of its hukahuka tassels in the main body but still has a significant amount left on the kurupata (or collar region) of the cloak. This is the concentration of tassels accentuating the top of the garment and the bottom (remu) displaying a freying effect with the tassels hanging off the edge.

The Oldman collection
The provenance of this korowai is from the Oldman Collection with the back of the garment has a tag on the back with "Oldman" written on it. In 1948, the New Zealand government purchased the Maori and Pacific collection of the London dealer W O Oldman. The collection was divided on indefinite loan among the four large New Zealand metropolitan museums, with small amounts also going to smaller public museums with adequate fireproof buildings. The Dominion Museum (now Te Papa) received the bulk of the Maori, Marquesan, New Caledonian, and Admiralty Island components of the collection together with small numbers of items from other island groups. Because these items had passed through various sale rooms in Britain, they often lack detailed information on their origins or historical context, but their quality is outstanding.

William Oldman was undoubtedly among the most important dealers in tribal and ethnic arts that has ever lived. He ran his business from London , and was most active between the late 1890s and the First World War. An incredible wealth of material from all parts of the world passed through his hands, including everything from artefacts and ethnographic works to art treasures from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Melanesia, Polynesia, the Pre-Columbian and North American Indian cultures, and Europe. Oldman was also a collector himself. He had a particular interest in Oceanic art and he held a spectacular personal collection of Maori art.