One of the country's best private collections of Kiwi folk art is going under the hammer at an Auckland auction house.
And while the kitsch of Kiwiana art isn't for everyone, for the collector who put it together, it's a lifetime collection that will now be enjoyed by others.
“This is raw, original, not contrived at all,” Andrew Grigg of Cordy's auctioneers said of much of the items.
The entire collection belonged to Ngaire Hart, a Port Waikato art collector who died in 2018.
“She recognised Kiwiana long before most people did. New Zealanders were always a bit slow to recognise our folk art,” art collector Fenella Tonkin said.
“I think she could see the uniqueness. That whole New Zealand-ness of it, because deep, deep down we were very, very creative.”
Most pieces tell a story of a woman who loved to travel and celebrate the culture she encountered.
“She would collect Brinkley carvings, New Zealand ceramics or even prints or other Māori imagery. She didn’t collect Māori artefacts per se, she had the opportunity but decided not to,” Mr Grigg said.
“There has been good interest. and it deserves it too. When we look at what was made commercially at this time there wasn't a whole lot that was celebrating New Zealand as much as these pieces.”
This afternoon the bidding began at Cordy's Auction House, and is expected to go late into the night.
“It will be nice to see other people buy it, collect it, and love it. And that's the whole beauty of this business - items are passed onto other people to love and that keeps going down the generations,” Ms Tonkin said.
“It could be $800 for an egg cup. Book ends could be a couple thousand,” Mr Grigg said.
“It's part of us, it's our history it is where we are from.”
SHARE ME