Whakapapa Glasses
Medium: New Zealand and Australian jade with gold leaf and enamel paint
Dimensions: 75 mm x 124 mm x 136 mm
Year: 2005
Sorry, not for sale.
Background: Whakapapa Glasses are a record of my direct lineage to my Prussian ancestry; the surname on the left of each coupling represents my direct lineage to Eleonore Münchenberg (nee Busch). Whakapapa is the Maori word for genealogy and is used to represent being a New Zealander.
Eleonore emigrated as a widow to Southern Australia (represented by black jade from Cowell on the Eyre Peninsula) with four of her eight children to escape religious persecution. My great grandmother, Susannah Johnstone (nee Münchenberg) emigrated to New Zealand with her second husband Alfred Johnstone, this is represented by New Zealand jade with a blue strip in the center of the carving representing the Tasman Sea. This also symbolises the loss at sea of Susannah Johnstone's first husband Thomas Riches. Ironically and sadly without his passing the Johnstone lineage that I descend from would not have occurred.
The parenthesis shape at each end define the beginning with Elenore and the end with myself. The family cannot be traced further back than Elenore and as I do not have children there will be no further additions to this genealogical line.