bag

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Object Type: bag
Museum number: Oc.4061
Description: Netted bag made of brown bark fibre cord with string handle.
Production ethnic group: Made by: Aboriginal Australian
Production date: 19thc(early) (before 1821?)
Excavator/field collector: Field Collection by: Frederick Bedwell (? see curatorial comment)
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Port Jackson
Materials: bark fibre (Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius))
Technique: netted
Dimensions: Height: 45.10 centimetres; Width: 35 centimetres; Depth: 3 centimetres
Curator's comments: Megaw (1993:35) says of bags Oc.4060 and Oc.4061: 'The bags are similar to that drawn by Charles-Alexandre Lesuer and published in the second edition of Francois Peron's and Louis de Freycinet's account of the Baudin expedition...; the Baudin bag appears to exhibit a similar knotting technique to that employed in the Arley Castle examples'.; As this object came from collection of Earl Moutnorris, it is likely it was collected by Frederick Bedwell, a midshipman on Phillip Parker King's voyages 1818-1821, who collected material for Mountnorris. See Siimpson 2021.; Christy collection registration slip description, probably written in the 1860s: 'Port Jackson, N.S. Wales Net bag made of cord of twisted brown bark fibre. L. 15" W at bottom 14" Cord handle. From the Arley Castle Collection'. The Arley Castle reference indicates that this object was acquired from the sale of the contents of Arley Castle, Staffordshire, the property of Earl of Mountnorris, Viscount Valentia, which was held by Messrs Farebrother, Clark and Lye, 6th-21st December, 1852. A tied-on handwritten label reads: 'Net made of Bark by Natives of Port Jackson New St Wales'.
Bibliographic references: Sculthorpe et al. 2015 / Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation (p.67, fig.50); National Museum of Australia 2015 / Encounters. Revealing Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Objects from the British Museum (p.87); Megaw 1993 / Something old, something new: further notes on the Aborigines of the Sydney district as represented by their surviving artefacts and as depicted in some early European representations (pp.33-35); Simpson 2020 / The Royal Navy in Indigenous Australia, 1795-1855. Maritime Encounters and British Museum Collections. (p.286)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: 2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation 2015-2016 27 Nov-28 Mar, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Encounters 2023-2024 11 Sept - 5 May, Sydney, State Library of New South Wales, Mobilising Aboriginal Objects – Botany Bay, Sydney and the “affiliated coastal zone”
Associated names: Associated with: Captain Phillip Parker King (? see curatorial comment)
Acquisition name: Donated by: Henry Christy
Previous owner: Previous owner/ex-collection: George Annesley, 2nd Earl of Mountnorris
Acquisition date: 1860-1869
Acquisition notes: From Arley Castle collection. It appears this object was acquired by Henry Christy from the Arley Castle collection sale in December 1852. After Christy's death in 1865 it came into the British Museum's collections as part of the Christy Collection bequest.
Department: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Registration number: Oc.4061
Additional IDs: CDMS number: Oc186?C1.4061 (old CDMS no.)
Conservation: Treatment: 01 May 2015; Treatment: 26 Jul 2023

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