Although Maori carvings in wood and bone appear to have been his specialty, Little also embellished existing objects with Maori-like decoration (fi g. 1), tried his hand at Marquesas stilt steps,23 and made at least one Hawaiian scarifying implement (fi g. 29). Most of his Rarotongan objects were deemed genuine by Oldman (fi gs. 5 and 6a–c), although the William Ellis provenance of some of these may merit reexamination. For the works he created, he would have had the catalogs of Webster and Oldman to consult, as well as Augustus Hamilton’s series, The Art Workmanship of the Maori Race in New Zealand, published between 1896 and 1900 and completed 128 in 1901, lavishly illustrated. Though clearly multitalented, it is highly unlikely that Little produced any stonework, since this requires different tools and skills from those used on wood and bone. Just after serving his six months’ hard labor in Devizes, Little enlisted with the Royal Engineers in March 1915, where he remained for three years before being discharged for shell shock (neurasthesia). After the war, he went back to trading, staying very much in his prewar vein and operating from western England. In 1919, Oldman’s letterbooks indicate that Little sold him some African objects. In October 1920, Oldman’s correspondence was directed to Little in a hospital in Ashurst, and in November, a hospital in Oxford. Oldman later wrote to Little complaining that a Rarotonga staff god he bought in 1921 was a “marriage,” but the following year he bought a staff and adzes from him. In 1922/23 he was again trading with Oldman from a hospital bed in Bath. In 1923 Oldman wrote that he wanted more Rarotonga and was pleased with a breast ornament he received. The following year he bought a Fiji hook. Sir Henry Wellcome24 (fi g. 28) was an easier target for Little, who sold him a quantity of fakes as well as genuine artifacts, all of which were dispersed after his death in 1936 and many of which are now in various museums in the UK and abroad. As Fuller mentions, Lt. Colonel James B. Gaskell was another of Little’s important clients. Not much is remembered about this man, who auction records indicate also collected military medals and Japanese art, but Fuller’s assertion that he paid Little “thousands for fakes” poses him as a major fi gure in Little’s career. These pieces were also dispersed upon Gaskell’s death in 1926 and their current locations are unknown. The deaths of Little’s most gullible clients25 may have exacerbated his situation. His trouble with the law arose again in 1932 when he was caught as he attempted to steal a jade axe from the Royal Literary and Scientifi c Institution in Bath.26 On 27 July he was sentenced to three months’ hard labor. This was to prove to be the beginning of a slow but steady decline. In 1934 he returned to the museum in Devizes, where he took some pre-historic bronzes. He was arrested but the charge dismissed for lack of evidence. He was described as a FIG. 26: Carved head in the Maori style, attributed to Edward Little. England. Early 20th century. Ex A. W. F. Fuller Collection. Wood. H: 18.7 cm. © Field Museum, Chicago, inv. 277599. This head was purchased at J. C. Stevens Auction Rooms in April 1919 by a dealer named Tucker for 16 guineas. After his death in 1935, it was again offered by Stevens, where Fuller acquired it for £10, recognizing it as a copy of a genuine head he had bought from Little (see fi g. 25). A deceptive label attached to the piece reads: “Mask brought home from New Zealand in 1848 by a relative of General Terry of Coombe Park, Bath.” FIG. 25 (above): Reproduction of an image of a Maori preserved head formerly in the A. W. F. Fuller Collection, who acquired it from Edward Little in 1913. Ex Field Museum, Chicago. Reproduced in Roland W. Force and Maryanne Force, The Fuller Collection of Pacifi c Artifacts, Praeger, New York, 1971, pl. 37. FIG. 27: The carved head from fi g. 26 as published by Fuller. Field Museum, Chicago, inv. 277599. Reproduced in Roland W. Force and Maryanne Force, The Fuller Collection of Pacifi c Artifacts, Praeger, New York, 1971, pl. 36. FEATURE FIG. 28: Sir Henry Wellcome (1853– 1936). Photographer unknown. 1930.
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