User:Islandbaygardener/Edward Armytage

Edward Armytage (- 1946) was a British collector of antiquities. While he collected other ethnographic material, it was for his collection of Maori items made from pounamu that he was best known.

Collecting
The Armytage collection represented almost every known type of Maori pounamu item including ear ornaments, tools, and pendants. There were over eighty-five Hei-tiki, three of which were double-sided. The collection was documented by Kenneth Athol Webster in his book The Armytage collection of Maori Jade. The provenance of Armytage's collection was varied. He was known to trade with the major ethnographic dealers in the United Kingdom during the mid-war period including Kenneth Athol Webster, Hooper and William Ockelford Oldman. Webster in particular helped Armytage develop his collection by encouraging him to purchase the pounamu collection of Thomas Edward Donne in 1944. Donne's collection was significant as it also held items from the John White Collection. Armytage travelled to New Zealand on three occasions to purchase for his collection, often from Maori owners, and also made personal finds at historic sites within New Zealand.

After Armytage's death in 1948, Webster encouraged both the  Dominion Museum and  Auckland Museum to purchase significant portions of the Armytage collection related to Maori.