figure
- Museum number
- Oc.2715
- Description
-
Carved figure made of wood, with inlaid eyes of shell. Ridge-like forehead with two shell inserts for eyes and navel, pronounced buttocks. Figure stands on a wooden platform and the wood has been darkened and polished. A topknot has been carved onto the top of the round head. Arms are crossed over the rotund belly.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 49.50 centimetres
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Width: 18 centimetres
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Depth: 11 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
The Wallace collection, Whitehaven is Joseph Ritson Wallace. See biography in Adams, J., Bence, P. and Clark, A. 2018. Fighting Fibres: Kiribati Coconut Fibre Armour and Museum
Collections. Leiden: Sidestone Press
-
Christy collection registration slip description, written in the 1860s?:
West Africa [crossed out] Ellice Is? BALC [Bryan Cranstone] (Polynesian outliers?) 10/2/[19]58
[In different handwriting] Micronesia
Wood Figure of a Man cut out of the solid. The eyes & navel are made of white shell or ivory.
[Added in different handwriting] A specimen in the Wallace Coll. Whitehaven similar to this was brought from Pleasant Id. Ellice Group
cf Edge P. 2nd series, p89, no.7 AF
[Added in different handwriting] ?Samoa or Society
Samoa has no figure of gods only symbols JEP
Ill. in Edge-P. Vol. 1, p.86, No.2. AF
from U.S.M.
W.A.11
-
Notes from Pacific Presences visit (Jan 2014): The figure looks female.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1860-1869
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc.2715
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Oc186?C1.2715 (old CDMS no.)
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: W.A.11 (United Service Museum number?)