The Oldman collection of Maori artifacts

During the later half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century in England, several famous private collections of ethnographic artifacts were assembled from the pool of "artificial curiosities" and souvenirs that had been circulating in Great Britain and the continent since the days of the first European explorers. Among these private collections, that of William Oldman was recognized as one of the most comprehensive and most important, especially for its Pacific component. Early in his artifact dealing business, Oldman decided to concentrate on collecting the treasures of Maori, Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian art and material culture. He built up comprehensive series showing all the significant variations of each artifact type, making his collection supremely valuable for future artistic and scholarly studies.