bowl
- Museum number
- Oc1855,1220.50
- Description
-
Scrap bowl (spitting) made of kou wood inlaid with human teeth. Studded all over with human teeth, including base. One tooth missing from uppermost row, another from the next down. Circular hole on one side of bowl; two small teeth inserted in natural crack above it.
- Production date
- 18thC(late)-19thC(early) (before 1855)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 25.50 centimetres
-
Height: 18 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Description from Extracts from the British and Medieval Register 1757-1878, p.174:
50. Wood massive bowl, narrow mouth. It is studded over with human teeth. D. 10 inches. H. 6 1/2 inches. Spitting bowl of same King [as Oc1855,1220.49, so Kamehameha]. Surgeon W. Davis.
-
Composite object. Modified human remains. No record of research. No claim received.
-
Registration slip:
'Presented by the Lords of the Admiralty (originally to Haslar Museum given by Surgeon W. Davis R.N.) 20th December 1855
Hawaiian group
Globular bowl of hard brown wood (kou) studded on the outer side with rows of human teeth.
Stated by Prof. W.T. Brigham of Honolulu to be an "ipu aina" or bowl for scraps, used at meals: the teeth are those of enemies of the owner. The bowl was originally stated to be a spittoon and to have belonged to King Tamehameha.'
(slip includes drawing)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1975 – 1985 12 Dec-23 Jun, London, BM, Museum of Mankind, Hawaii
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Acquisition notes
- Presented by Surgeon W[illiam] Davis
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1855,1220.50
