Tongan Christmas, 1834

This is a carving, in fragrant sandalwood, of one of the ancient Gods of Tonga, the island group in the South Pacific. I bought her in Nuku'alofa, some 50 years ago, and she still smells fragrant!
Only six original wooden “goddess” figures from Tonga have survived in public museum collections around the world. Three are in Auckland and there are single examples in Chicago, Paris and of all places my alma mater, Aberdeen University in Scotland.
The Aberdeen figure, labelled as Sakaunu, a goddess of the underworld,  was almost certainly donated to King's College by David Cargill. Cargill was a graduate of the university and served as a Methodist missionary in Tonga from 1834-5 and in Fiji from 1835 to 1840.
Should you be interested, you can see the original figures, and read more about them here.