ornament
- Museum number
- Oc1931,0714.42
- Description
-
Presentation tooth, tabua, made of cachalot tooth, with incised depiction of two sailing ships. Coconut fibre cord.
- Production date
- 19thC(late) (?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 34 centimetres
-
Width: 18.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 4 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Email received in Oct 2020 from Dr Stuart M Frank, Senior Curator Emeritus, New Bedford Whaling Museum advises that the two vessels are not 'brigs' but full-rigged barques (or 'barks' in American parlane).
-
Dr Janet West, Wolfson College, Cambridge, 1987:
Two ships on one side are brigs, the one on the other side is a schooner. The hunting scene is interesting as the harpooner is shown much larger than the other figures. Problem with the depiction of the ships, some details are very accurate, but rigging on one looks wrong - does this mean work by a Fijian? Possibly late 19th century.
-
Old handwritten label:
Whales Tooth, Fiji.
Etching by whalers
-
CITES identification July 1998:
Sperm whale tooth (physeter macrocephalus)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1997-1998 25 Sep-27 Jan, Osaka, National Museum of Ethnology, Images of Other Cultures
1998 11 Feb-12 Apr, Tokyo, Setagaya Art Museum, Images of Other Cultures
2002-2008 Oct-Oct, The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, Bristol, Permanent Gallery display
2011-2012, 6 Oct-19 Feb, London, The British Museum, 'Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman'
- Acquisition date
- 1931
- Acquisition notes
- Register comment : 'Collected by Sir Wm. Allardyce (in Fiji 1879-1914, Governor 1901), in whose memory they are given.'
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1931,0714.42