For more than 50 years it lay carefully folded in a box stored safely in a cupboard.
The korowai - a finely woven Maori cloak - dates back to a time, more than 80 years ago, when it was placed on the shoulders of Napier Police Constable William Heslop.
When Mr Heslop left the police and the district in the 1930s, he took the precious cloak with him, although it returned here, and to his family, after his death more than 50 years ago.
And into the box, for safekeeping, it went.
Until a few months ago when his grandson, Otane man Maitland Manning, began compiling a family history.
His sister remembered the korowai their grandfather had, and which she had stored away, and Mr Manning also remembered seeing an old photograph of his grandfather, in his police uniform, wearing the cloak.
He has been unable to unearth the old photo but remembers that it appeared to have been taken on Napier Hill - possibly in the Botanical Gardens, and that the proud constable was surrounded by "a lot of people".
"He was with the police here from 1919 and left about 1930," Mr Manning said.
"For some reason he was presented with this remarkable korowai but we don't know why."
Mr Manning made contact with Napier Constable Rob Rutene, and he in turn got in touch with Hastings woman Daphne Tito who has, through the years, made six korowai and has extensive knowledge of them.
The three met up at Napier Police Station yesterday, with Mr Manning bearing the cloak, and Mrs Tito was astonished.
"It is very old and very special," she said. "It would have been made by several people - something like this could have taken up to two years to make."
The cloak is made from finely woven strips of flax - so fine it feels like wool. Native bird feathers adorn it.
Mrs Tito said such korowai were traditionally given to people when they left the district.
"They did not give these away to just anyone. He would have had to have done something very special to receive it. He must have had very good mana, and done a lot for local Maori while he was here. It would only have been given to someone who deserved it."
Mr Manning said he had been unable to unearth much information about his grandfather's time with the police in Napier, and how he came to forge such a special relationship with Maori - to the point where they presented him with what Mrs Tito described as a valuable taonga.
Others who had seen the cloak also described it as "very special", while one kaumatua told Mr Manning that if he ever wanted to wear it he had the right to - "by descent".
"I really want to find out more about who made it, and who presented it and why," Mr Manning said.
Mr Rutene said he had begun carrying out his own investigations using police records but had unearthed nothing at this stage.
"Someone out there may recognise it or remember something about the occasion," he said.