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The great exhibition at Crystal Palace in London in 1851 started the ball rolling and New Zealand soon joined the worldwide fad for giant expositions or “expos”. Our first was the New Zealand Industrial Exhibition of 1865, held in Dunedin. A collector would need to be lucky to find memorabilia from this event, but a second Dunedin exhibition in 1889-90 spawned photos, booklets and a variety of souvenirs as well as a 40-metre wooden version of the Eiffel Tower. The real one had been unveiled for the Paris Exposition Universelle only months earlier.
A whole flurry of New Zealand exhibitions in the years around 1900 has provided fertile ground for collectors. There were exhibitions in Christchurch in 1882 and 1906, one in Wellington in 1885, the Auckland Exhibition of 1913-14 and the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin in 1925.
The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition of 1939-40 was a major national event, attracting more than two and a half million visitors at a time when our population was just 1.6 million. Many people made multiple visits, perhaps attracted by the big amusement park called Playland, which provided light relief in wartime.
Despite the onset of World War II, the government of the time was persuaded by public opinion to continue with the Centennial Exhibition, timed to mark 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. It was a celebration of nationhood and a showcasing of New Zealand talents in manufacturing, technology, art and design.
Crockery, glassware and ashtrays decorated with images of the impressive exhibition building on its nine-hectare site at Rongotai, near Wellington Airport, were popular souvenirs. Ironically, most were made in England although some were decorated in New Zealand. They were often engraved on the spot with the names of the buyer and the recipient, so collectors might find themselves with ashtrays or coloured drinking glasses with inscriptions such as “To Mother from Harry” or “For Edna from your sister”.
The exhibition also featured New Zealand artists demonstrating and selling their work, among them early studio potters Olive Jones and Elizabeth Matheson. Their pottery, notated with a Centennial Exhibition mark, is now very collectable. A pair of table lamp bases by Olive Jones, with shades designed for the exhibition, sold last year at Art + Object in Auckland for just over $2000.
1. This glazed bowl with Maori motifs was painted and sold during the six-month-long New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in 1939-40; it is signed and notated with place and date by the artist, Robert Donn, a Dunedin painter and teacher.
2. Nicholson’s Curios & Collectables, Lower Hutt, has a collection of Centennial Exhibition memorabilia, including a small Carlton Ware ashtray ($85) and a souvenir folder with 12 photographs ($50).
(04) 939 9855.
3. The carillon at the National War Memorial in Wellington is sometimes confused with the tower of the Centennial Exhibition building. This plate with an original sticker attached was sold at the exhibition but the image is, in fact, of the carillon. The sandwich tray features the exhibition building. Both are for sale at Meldrum House Antiques, Whangarei, $38 and $45. (09) 437 7366.
4. Many English potteries, including Crown Ducal and Shelley, made souvenirs for sale at the Centennial Exhibition. This dish was made by H & K Tunstall, probably the most prolific supplier. It’s on sale for $28 at Woodville Mart, (06) 376 5865.
5. Hobson’s Antiques, Wellington, are cups and saucers made by Colclough China of England, featuring the iconic image of the Centennial tower. On sale for $45 each. (04) 389 6689.
Story: Pam Neville
Photographs: Belinda Merrie
Stylist: Tracey Strange
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