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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 227110, member: 2844&quot;]An update on the first pendant, the pounamu hei tiki, here is a reply from an expert at the Te Papa Museum in Welington NZ:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The stone is nephrite pounamu of kawakawa variety. It has most likely been sourced from the Central Westland area on the South Island’s West Coast between the present day towns of Hokitika and Greymouth.</p><p>I estimate the age of this hei tiki as being late 19th century to early 20th century.</p><p>While I can’t pinpoint a date or even an actual decade this example has been crafted using European tools and that locates its origins to the late 19th century at the earliest. One tell-tale sign is the way the nostrils, ribs and fingers have been sharply grooved. Earlier working of pounamu used abrasive stone files which wore themselves in the process of shaping out the hei tiki features. This resulted in smoother contours to the finished adornment.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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