Toast rack

The Victorian fashion for combining animal parts with precious metals to make useful and decorative objects produced some items that, judged by today's standards, can sometimes seem grotesque.

A remarkable object
This toast rack is one of the more spectacular examples of this type of object in Te Papa's collection. The Wanganui silversmith William Nettleship used tusks from four wild boars to fashion the remarkable object. In late nineteenth-century New Zealand, the tusks of wild boars were a readily available source of ivory - in itself a precious material.

William Nettleship
Little is known about Nettleship. He was born in London, and moved to Victoria, Australia aged fourteen in 1851. After completing an apprenticeship as a jeweller there, he came to New Zealand in 1869. Ten years later, he established a jewellery and watchmaking business in Victoria Street, Wanganui.