Mel Williams, Visitor Services
I love a good mystery which is why I look forward to the start of every month when our Collections Registrar tries to stump us with an object she finds in the collection here.
Each item is exhibited in a display case in the museum at Kiwi North for the month with absolutely no information about it. It is also posted on Instagram and Facebook with zero hints as to its use and origin.
Some items have been relatively easy to guess but others have left me, and many others mystified.
The long bamboo object was originally displayed closed which made it a little trickier to identify. Some of the guesses from people included a tenderising tool and a kitchen utensil. However, it is a bamboo container for blow darts. Originally from Sarawak in Borneo, it was donated to the Whangārei Museum by Mrs E.F Radford in 1966.
The tool kit was interesting and easily determined as such by a lot of people, but its use was more elusive. Measuring just 185mm x 73mm, the entire kit is a lot smaller than it appears in the picture. It is a miniature railway engine toolkit. The tools and box were all made by P S Bevan in 1932 and it was donated to the museum by Mr Keith Sharp in 1985.
One of my favourites was the wooden object with the holes in it because some of the guesses online were so great. They included a home-made ray gun, something for growing carrot sprouts and hilariously, “Looks like someone has tried to make a wooden replica of a Mars Attacks alien laser gun, but then a hungry caterpillar has put some holes in it”. It is in fact an ocarina, a wind instrument, a type of flute. There have been a lot of variations made but they are an enclosed instrument with between four and twelve finger holes plus a mouthpiece. They are typically made from ceramic or clay but can also be made from plastic, glass, metal, bone or wood, as this one is.
The most popular game of “Guess the Mystery Object” on Facebook last year was the metal item with the circular base. In an extremely rare turn of events, nobody guessed what it was or what it was used for. Some of the suggestions however were brilliant. Sock stretcher, potato masher, hat stand, wax stamp, cookie press, shoe stand, bath plug, jewellery hanger… there was no shortage of creative conjectures. What it actually is however, is a letter holder. You would position your letters in the middle then twist the metal bars to hold them in place. This was received as a donation from Mr T Rapley in 2003.
And as for this month’s mystery treasure, it reads “Whyte & Mackay Special Scotch” and is made of ivory. But what is it? And what was it used for?
