A Crime of Skill and Patience

This piece of fine marquetry shows how an infamous Taranaki outlaw saw the light and turned his life around.

Bob Wallath, a quiet young carpenter, terrorised New Plymouth during the early 1890s when he carried out a series of robberies while wearing an elaborate disguise. Nicknamed the Highwayman, Wallath had the whole district talking until he was unmasked during a failed attempt to rob the Criterion Hotel and sentenced to eight years jail.

He emerged from prison with strong religious convictions and went on to lead a quiet productive life as a builder in New Plymouth. Family friends remember him as a gentle, generous man. The surviving samples of his marquetry in the Puke Ariki Heritage Collection show he was also a patient and skilled craftsman.