mask
- Museum number
- Oc1855,1220.170
- Description
-
Mask made of turtle-shell plates sewn together through drilled holes with coconut(?) fibre cord. The eyes contain black gum, and the eyelashes are represented by notched pieces of turtle-shell. The self left ear is missing. A wooden stick is attached to the interior for the wearer to hold in his teeth. Cassowary feathers are attached with fibre string to one end. The mask is partially coloured with red ochre and white pigment.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1855)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 32 centimetres
-
Width: 53 centimetres
-
Depth: 19.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
See Simpson 2020 for an argument why this object may have been collected by Frederick Whipple.
-
Description in Extracts from the British and Medieval Register 1757-1878:
A mask made of tortoiseshell, with ornaments at the ears and pierced bands at sides, behind a stick. L. 14 inches. From Murrays Island, Torres Straits.
-
Original handwritten label, torn, writing says?:
One of the tortoise shell
masks as worn by the Mur-
-ray sland savages in
their merry making.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Acquisition notes
- Presented by the Lords of the Admiralty through Sir John Liddell, C.B. (the Museum of Haslar Hospital)
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1855,1220.170
