A large heart-shaped antique pendant in New Zealand nephrite, the front carved with a finely detailed scene of a kiwi amongst branches, the carving precise and characterful. The kiwi, New Zealand's most distinctive native bird, is rendered with real fidelity, its characteristic long beak and rounded body immediately recognisable.
New Zealand nephrite, known as pounamu or greenstone, was a material of deep significance to Māori culture, traded across the islands for centuries before European contact and valued for its hardness, beauty and spiritual associations. Carved pounamu pieces were among the most prized objects encountered by early European traders and collectors, and the material entered the European market from the late 18th century onwards.
Victorian carved nephrite pieces featuring New Zealand subjects are rare survivals, made at the height of British colonial interest in the Pacific and the Victorian fashion for natural history and the exotic. The heart form gives this overtly Pacific material a European sentimental framing that is entirely characteristic of the period, the native bird and the foreign stone housed within one of the most universally understood shapes in Western jewellery.
Era: Late Victorian, c.1900
Hallmarks:
Unmarked.
Dimensions:
Height 40mm
Width 39mm
Jump ring 4.5mm
