Description
Rare c.18th engraving of Tuanui, (also known as Rangituanui), principal chief of the Ngati Hikatoa, from the French edition of Cook’s second voyage.
Tuanui is shown with feathers in his hair, albatross feather earrings, moko and a bone toggle fastening his cloak. This likeness was taken aboard the Resolution in the Cape Kidnappers area on 22 October 1773. Tuanui was the recipient of two sows and two boars, from which the wild pigs known as ‘Captain Cookers‘ are descended. The engraved image is a reversal of the original red chalk drawing.
Hodges made the portrait for this engraving on 22 October 1773 on Cook’s second visit to Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, from 22 October to 26 November 1773.
‘In the morning we were to the south of Cape Kidnappers, and advanced to the Black Cape. After breakfast three canoes put off from this part of the shore, where some level land appeared at the foot of the mountains. They soon came on board as we were not very far from the land, and in one of them a chief, who came without hesitation. He was a tall middle-aged man, clothed in two new and elegant dresses, made of the New Zealand glag or flax-plant. His hair was dressed in the highest fashion of the country, tied on the crown, oiled, and stuck with white feathers. In each ear he wore a piece of albatross skin with its white down, and his face was punctured in spirals and curved lines.’
From Hawkesworth, Relation des Voyages Entrepris par ordre de Sa Majeste Britannique Actuallement Regnante. Paris
