JEWELLERY, DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS AUCTION Tuesday, 27 October 2026 / 10:00 am start
An old Māori hoe (paddle) 'Te Hoe o Tainui' with Tainui provenance,
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Lot Details
with large traditional diamond shaped blade tapering to the straight handle, rounded knob to the handle end. Scallop carved blade surface with dark patina and old varnish. Engraved letters the back of the blade top. L.1420mm. Registered Y 23315. Vendor's provenance: 'My father Ernest Thompson b1890 d1963 was given this item before my birth in 1946. Since his death in 1963, as his only child, I have been its kaitiaki. My father's family bought land at Te Hoe in the Waikato late 1890's/early 1900's. My father Ernest was appointed as Te Hoe's first Post Master at a very young age in the early 1900's. As such he was asked by Wellington, to recommend a name for the fledging district of Māori and a few British settlers. My father consulted hapū and they suggested the name Te Hoe (The paddle) which was their name for the nearby maunga. That, and the fact that Te Hoe is located West of nearby Hoe-o-Tainui (Paddle of Tainui) meant that when those two names are run together you have 'The Paddle of the waka Tainui'. This is information rather than the history of this hoe. It provides context. My father told me (he died when I was 17) he thought paddle had been discovered long ago in the then undrained large swamp land between Hoe-o-Tainui and Te Hoe. I'm 80 and my family has been its kaitiaki all of my life, and long before that. Almost certainly from the early 1900's. My father and his oldest brother William David Thompson helped hapū find their way around the Māori Land Court in Hamilton in the first half of last century and registered the hapu's births and deaths. Providing legal advice. They both spoke fluent Māori. Both also employed local hapu and had very close relations with them. William was cared for in his old age by local Māori in his home until his death. It does not surprise me that my father was given the Te Hoe o Tainui, but I do not know under what circumstances.’
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