Ngati Tarawhai Carved Mirror Frame with Ancestral Figures

Ngati tarawhai carved mirror frame, modelled in the form of a…
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Ngati tarawhai carved mirror frame, modelled in the form of a pare and whakawae, the lintels and supports which frame the windows of wharenui (meeting houses) the pare centered by a figure with hands placed to his abdomen flanked by outward facing manaia figures with three fingered hands above a frieze decorated with pikorauru (spirals) and rauponga. The whakawae with two ancestral figures each surmounting the other with their hands placed on their abdomens and with inset paua disc eyes. The lower section shelf decorated with a tauira (scrolling spiral) design and with further rauponga decoration. The original recessed mirror with a beveled edge. This carved mirror frame is similar to another example carved by Tene Waitere that was exhibited alongside other ngati tarawhai carvings in the 1906 international exhibition in Christchurch. That mirror is now held in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te papa Tongarewa and is currently on display in the exhibition Turangawaewae: Art and New Zealand, 73 x 53 cm Y 10884

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  • Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.

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