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John Elliot Lawford (‘Johnny’) was a mainstay of the New Zealand auction and gallery community for many years, assembling one of the country’s most extensive and interesting collections of New Zealand paintings and prints, rare books and taonga. Born in 1933, Lawford travelled extensively for some sixty years procuring orders for the family business firm CE Lawford, importers and merchants of hardware and tools. During this time he frequented salerooms all around New Zealand and the world, pursuing his passion for collecting and repatriating items to New Zealand of national significance. The collection includes a major painting by William Strutt, one of the most significant early New Zealand paintings in private hands, an exceedingly rare copy of Edward J Wakefield’s Illustrations to Adventure in New Zealand (London, 1845) with colour lithographs, a pair of 19th Century Huia birds mounted in vintage case, and a large preEuropean pounamu adze.