120 James Edward Little Dealer, Faker, Inept Thief made art purchases from him and then in later years developed a strange fascination with his fakes. A note by Fuller (fi g. 2) directed to Roland Force of the Field Museum, which purchased his entire collection, is associated with what he perceived to be one of the more extravagant of these forgeries (fi g. 1). Although Fuller was not in possession of all the facts, prone to hyperbole, and is known to have been mistaken on occasion, this document provides the broad strokes of Little’s story as it generally has been recounted. Label attached to a Little Fake (F-C 4915 at Chicago) This is one of Edw. Little’s most interesting & amusing type of fake, as it is unlike any Maori object at all. Here he has taken a genuine specimen—a Tibetan human legbone trumpet—pierced it with 4 key-holes & carved it with great skill & labour with a “Maori” pattern of the unmistakable Little design, especially his type of spiral & fi nish. I have not seen more than 2 or 3 of this type of fake &, doubtlessly, it required too much labour. There is one in the Musée de l’Homme in Paris as a genuine piece!! Little was a real artist & skillful carver & by trade was an antique furniture dealer & repairer, somewhere on the South Devon coast. As a side-line, his wife let lodging during the summer months & one year about 1900, a well known London dealer of natural history & native specimen, by name J. B. Russell, who himself gave me these particulars, took these lodgings for his family quite by chance. One day he was looking round Little’s store room when he came upon some native curios & purchased them & although Little did not trade in such things, he promised to look out for them in future & pass them on to Russell, with the result that a profi table business ensued. Little soon got the hang of things, raising his prices & devoting himself largely to this form of trading, & advertising in the “Exchange & Mart” through which medium Oldman, Beasley, & myself got into contact with him. I must have made my fi rst purchase from him about 1903–4. When In the early twentieth century, tribal artifacts were still considered an extension of natural history, but certain types transcended this restricted view. Maori art in particular was much admired for the workmanship of the decorated surfaces and, even then, the demand exceeded the supply, so much so that greenstone tiki were being made for the market in Germany1 as well as in New Zealand.2 Similarly, Marquesas Islands art was being made on demand for the French. Today, history has caused the lines of fake and genuine to become blurred in some cases, but the hands of certain forgers are recognizable and represent something of an artistry in their own right. Prominent among these was Edward Little, who never traveled to the Pacifi c from his home in southwestern England but nonetheless is remembered as one of history’s most notable and successful fakers of Maori art. His history has been much researched but little told, and his strange and fascinating story provides an illuminating window both into collecting practices and the art market of the time. James Edward Little (1876–1953) was a source for material for the three great British collectors of tribal art in the early twentieth century, Captain A. W. F. Fuller, H. G. Beasley, and W. O. Oldman. He also sold to the pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Wellcome and to the little-known but prolifi c collector Colonel James Gaskell, among others. Despite his notable connections, Little has less of a reputation as a signifi cant dealer and more as a notorious faker. Although only one poorly carved object is known with certainty to have been carved by him, so vast a corpus of dubious material has been attributed to him that the time has come to try to clarify the situation and at least give credit where credit is due. How much did he carve himself? Did he know the identity of the other carvers (James Robieson in particular) whose works he may have sold? And what about the authentic artworks he sold? Much of the basic information we have about Little comes from Captain Walter Fuller (fi g. 3), who at fi rst FEATURE By Hermione Waterfi eld FIG. 1: Tibetan bone “fl ute” decorated in the Maori style, attributed to Edward Little. England. Early 20th century. Ex A. W. F. Fuller Collection. Human femur. L: 31.7 cm. © Field Museum, Chicago, inv. 277606. Acquired by Fuller for about one
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