John Alexander MacKinven created this cabinet of curiosities, which includes around 230 pieces of carved kauri gum, soon after the end of the First World War.

Born in the Isle of Skye, MacKinven left Scotland for New Zealand and settled in Ponsonby, Auckland. He spent most of his working life as a seaman and sailed mostly around New Zealand on the Tofua (sic). Possibly, he went further afield in his travels. There is little known of him apart from this.

Kauri gum is the fossilised resin from the New Zealand native tree, the kauri and is sometimes described as amber because of its similarity to the European fossilised resin.

AH Reed describes in his book The Gumdiggers, The Story of Kauri Gum that ‘a gumdigger, sitting in his tent or whare, would often do a bit of carving at night, on wet days, or on Sundays. the favourite subjects were hearts, crosses and anchors, and some showed great initiative and skill; one careless movement of the knife might ruin a bit of work that had occupied many hours. polishing became an exercise in patience; emery paper, followed by progressively finer grades of sandpaper were used for this, the final gloss being given be a kerosene rag or ... with the palm of a hand’

Within the folk carving tradition, John MacKinven has created a delightful whaling tableau on the bottom shelf of his cabinet of curiosities and assembled bottles and bibles, shells and hearts, and numerous fanciful objects carved by him on the other shelves.

cabinet of kauri gum curiosities, John Alexander MacKinven, (b? Isle of Skye, Scotland - d? Auckland, New Zealand), New Zealand, circa 1918 onwards