bailer is now in the Field Museum in Chicago20 (fi gs. 24a & b), which purchased Fuller’s extensive collection in 1958. The Liverpool Museum has a bailer acquired from the Taunton museum, which is inscribed: “Modern copy of a Maori canoe-bailer. New Zealand (made by Edward Little)” (fi g. 22). Another bailer in the Birmingham Museum, which was acquired from Wellcome, has the distinctive scrolls fl anking the face above the handle and appears to be the work of Little (fi g. 23). In 1914 Fuller bought a preserved Maori head from Little (fi g. 25). More than two decades later he was to fi nd a head of kauri wood in an auction that he recognized as carved with the identical scarifi cation, which convinced him that Little had copied it from the head he had sold him (fi gs. 26 and 27). He bought it for ten pounds. The style of the head is quite different from that of the box cover, quite likely demonstrating the range of Little’s carving ability. Although Fuller wrote on 5 May 1914 that he wished to close his account with Little,21 he was suffi ciently intrigued that he continued to buy the latter’s work from time to time (although not from Little). He acquired the bone trumpet (fi g. 1) that he discusses in his note to Roland Force quoted at the top of this article in 1951, thirty-seven years after he broke off direct relations with Little. The kauri wood head (fi gs. 26 and 27) is presumably the piece that had fooled experts mentioned in the fi nal paragraph of that document. In 1907 Little’s wife obtained a separation order in Torquay based on his infi delity, which she discovered when she visited Taunton, where he had relocated and was living with a former servant girl under the name Mr. and Mrs. Little. Maria (the real Mrs. Little) was given custody of their two children, whereafter Little not only changed his address often but also his name.22 The records of various court cases list his aliases and assorted addresses, mostly in the West of England. He consigned items for sale under these various aliases. He lived at Lansdown View, Staple Hill, and Bristol as Harris in 1914 (under which name he was accused in connection with the theft of the Weston fl ints); moved to Amesbury, Warminster, and Swindon as Silas Harding (and also as Horton); and St. George, Bristol, and Mangotsfi eld, before returning to Swindon as Silas Harding. The Wiltshire Advertiser of April 1915 related one Mrs. Willis’ testimony that Little had signed himself in the visitors book at Wiltshire Archaeological Society’s Museum as H. Arngld (sic) of Swindon before he swapped the lids of the feather box, for which, as noted above, he was convicted. 127 FIG. 22 (right): Bailer with phallic handle in the Maori style, attributed to Edward Little. England. Early 20th century. Pine wood (Pinus palustris). L: 40 cm. Purchased from Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton Museum, 1942. World Museum, Liverpool, inv. 42.11.117 (alt. 42.11.111). The handle is inscribed with the following in white paint: “Modern copy of a Maori canoe-bailer (made by Edward Little).” Wood analysis has revealed that it is made from pine, which does not occur in New Zealand. FIG. 23 (right): Bailer in the Maori style, attributed to Edward Little. England. Early 20th century. Wood, shell. L: 44.5 cm. Transferred from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, inv. 1951A19.63. FIGS. 24a and b (below): Two Maori canoe bailers from the Fuller Collection. One of these may be the example stolen by Little from the Somerset County Museum, Taunton. Ex A. W. F. Fuller Collection. Field Museum, Chicago, invs. 273914 and 273915. Reproduced in Roland W. Force and Maryanne Force, The Fuller Collection of Pacifi c Artifacts, Praeger, New York, 1971. James Edward Little
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