Shrunken heads displayed on vases and as hanging baskets. Photograph, ca. 1890 (?).

Horatio Robley, seated with his collection of severed heads of Maori people. Photograph by H. Stevens, 190-.

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<p>"The most gruesome offerings [auctoned by Henry Stevens] were shrunken human heads, sold by Stevens on several occasions, the most remarkable being, in 1902, the collection of thirty-three tattooed Maori heads, the property of General Robley, who, it is said, decorated his bedroom wall with these relics and 'when unable to sleep at night   would rise and comb his Maoris' hair, and felt himself soothed' (Allingham, 204-5). " (Michael P. Cooper, 'Stevens family (per. c.1830-1925)', Oxford dictionary of national biography, Oxford 2004). The accuracy of Allingham's account is questionable</p>

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1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 16.4 x 11.9 cm

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Horatio Robley, seated with his collection of severed heads of Maori people. Photograph by H. Stevens, 190-.

Shrunken heads displayed on vases and as hanging baskets. Photograph, ca. 1890 (?).

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Display of collectibles

Images

Works

Horatio Robley, seated with his collection of severed heads of Maori people. Photograph by H. Stevens, 190-.

Shrunken heads displayed on vases and as hanging baskets. Photograph, ca. 1890 (?).

Wellcome Collection

Today’s opening times