The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Wakahuia, a cylindrical, wood treasure box, dark brown and shallow with a line running horizontally across the center where the lid meets the base, flanked on either side by stylized figures' heads. Intersecting straight-lined and spiral designs completely cover the box, either solid lines or rows of squat diamond-shapes. These also pattern the faces, the top of their heads flat and their eyes made from subtle yellow-green colored rings.

Treasure Box (Wakahuia)

1800s

Polynesia, New Zealand, Maori people, 19th century

wood with abalone shell
Overall: 17.2 cm (6 3/4 in.)
The Mary Spedding Milliken Memorial Collection, Gift of William Mathewson Milliken 1961.405
Location: Not on view

Description

Decorated with low-relief spiral designs and small carved figures at each end, the treasure box was used to store ornaments worn by chiefs: feathers of the huia bird, combs, and pendants (hei-tiki). Because the heads and necks of high-ranking Maori chiefs were tapu, or sacred, their personal adornments were dangerous to children or individuals of lower rank. Treasure boxes were therefore hung from the rafters of the chief's house. Boxes like this one were in use when Captain Cook visited New Zealand in 1769-70.
  • Harry Beasley
    Harry Beasley
  • Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. p. 117, color repr. p. 52, no. 40.
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 40, p. 117, color repr. p. 52.
    Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).
    The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).
  • {{cite web|title=Treasure Box (Wakahuia)|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1961.405