Here’s another fantastic piece of Raffaele Ruggeri’s art from the new Osprey book on the colonial New Zealand Wars that I introduced yesterday. This picture is from Osprey’s advent calendar on their blog.
This pic really shows the unusual ‘shawl’, which members of the New Zealand Armed Constabulary and militia often wore in imitation of their Maori foe (and allies).
The shawls were simply blankets wrapped around the waist, and were much more suitable for scrambling through the rugged New Zealand bush than wearing heavy trousers.
Ruggeri’s figures remind me of Don Troiani’s work in their realism, especially the faces and also the texture of the clothing.
This book is going to be fabulous even for just for the pictures alone!
DRESSING THE LINES 
Hi Roly,
Just wanted to thank you for your enthusiasm for this book thus far (of course, you are free to change your mind when you actually see it!). In the end the book was rather behind deadline, so so far you have seen as much of the finished artwork as I have – hasn’t Raffaele done a fantastic job? It was of course an awfully big subject to cram into a standard MAA title, and one fraught with pitfalls, but I hope you will like it – basically it looks briefly at everything from the Musket Wars of the 1820s through to the Te Kooti campaign. The artwork include pre-colonial Maori dress and weapons, 1840s British, 1840s/60s Maori, later Maori (Pai Marire etc), 1860s British, NZ militia and volunteer units (including Forest Rangers), kupapa Maori and finally NZ Armed Constabulary. Obviously it wasn’t possibe to cover all this exhaustively – that would take several Osprey titles! – but I have tried to give a representative selection. And whatever failings there are in the text, if all else fails the artwork should look fantastic! I hope you will find something of interest,
All the best,
Ian Knight
Thanks for that, Ian. Isn’t it amazing how in this electronic age you can write an article about a book, and before you know it, the author is commenting … fantastic!
A contact of mine has reported that he bought a copy of the book in a bookshop in Wellington today. Drat, I thought I would be the first to have it in my hand, having pre-ordered it from Osprey months ago!
I’m very much looking forward to it. I hope it is a successful book for you (even though the NZ Wars are little known).
Morning (here anyway),
It certainly is a funny old world – I’m still getting used to people on the other side of the world being interested in my stuff before it’s out! I’d be surprised if your contact has got a copy of this book already, although maybe it’s released early in NZ. As far as I know no copies are available yet in the UK – as I say, I’ve not seen it yet, and Osprey are usually quite good at sending the author a copy from the first batch back from the printers. So either your contact has been very lucky or there might be some confusion? Anyway, hope you get yours soon,
All the best,
Ian
I must admit that struck me as curious, too. I wonder if he is confusing it with your other Opsrey on Maori Fortifications?
My contact has just confirmed – it *definitely* is your latest Osprey!!! So not only has he beaten me to the punch, but also the author!!!
Well, good for him – though I think you deserved it more! I guess it must be released early in NZ then – hope you get yours soon, and that, after all this, you actually enjoy it!
This is a strange coincidence – the postman has just delivered my first advanced copy of this! It’s definately an advanced copy though – the covering note makes it clear it won’t be available til next month! Anyway, it looks good – the rest of the artwork is excellent, although the b/w illustrations somehow always look smaller when it’s printed!