Huia beak brooch

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.

Samuel Drew was born in England, and grew up in Launceston, Tasmania, where his father owned a watchmaking and jewellery business. On finishing school, Samuel was sent to England to undertake an apprenticeship in the trade. In 1860 he rejoined his parents, who had by this time relocated to Nelson, New Zealand. 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 Whanganui 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.