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Overview
At the turn of the century, Samuel Drew fashioned this brooch for Lizzie Maras (1879–1933) of Whanganui from the beak of a female huia. 'Lizzie' is engraved on a gold mount along with two leaves.
Born in England, Drew grew up in Launceston, Tasmania, where his father owned a watchmaking and jewellery business. On finishing school, he was sent to England to undertake an apprenticeship in the trade. In 1860 he rejoined his parents, who had moved their business to Nelson. Drew subsequently established his own business in Whanganui in 1864. He imported a wide range of readymade stock, such as lockets, watches, spectacles and work boxes, and also produced his own jewellery.
Drew was also a keen naturalist. He involved his whole family in collecting and classifying everything from birds to butterflies and fossils, and both he and his son, Henry, who was also to become a jeweller, applied their fine-tuned hands to taxidermy and eventually gifted his collection to the Whaganui Museum, where he became an honorary curator. As ‘bird stuffers’, the Drews had access to a steady supply of beaks for jewellery, especially from spoiled skins. Henry’s own son recalled numerous huia specimens arriving at the Whanganui Museum and being discarded if they could not be attended to promptly.