necklace
- Museum number
- Oc1846,0729.2
- Description
-
Necklace of maireener shells or rainbow kelp shells (phasianotrochus irisodontes) strung together.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1846)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 1 centimetres
-
Width: 211.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 4 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Description from Extracts from the British and Medieval Register 1757-1878, p.80:
1-6. From the Flinders Island, Bass Straits. Presented by Lord Stanley.
2. Another [Necklace of shells], length 3 feet 2 1/2 inches.
-
Another similar necklace Oc.1894 is part of the Christy Collection.
-
Colloquially known as maireener shells. Formerly called elenchus purpuratus, now known as phasianotrochus irisodontes.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation
2015-2016 27 Nov-28 Mar, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Encounters
- Acquisition date
- 1846
- Acquisition notes
- These objects were donated by the 'Rt Hon Lord Stanley' who became the 14th Earl of Derby after the death of his father, the 13th Earl of Derby. Although donated by the 14th Earl, it is likely the objects came from his father's collection. Both the 13th and 14th Earl of Derby had a close association with the British Museum: Edward Smith Stanley (1775-1851), 13th Earl of Derby, politician and noted naturalist, was a Trustee of the British Museum 1834-1851; and Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 2nd Baron of Bickerstaffe, later 14th Earl of Derby, Secretary of State for the Colonies and later Prime Minister, was a Sloane Trustee of the British Museum 1835-1866. See Sculthorpe 2016.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1846,0729.2
