mahiole
- Museum number
- Oc1944,02.717
- Description
-
Helmet (mahiole) made of basketry made from ‘ie’ie basketry with a wide crest, with a decorative pattern of dark brown plaited into the natural colour of the rootlets. There are three bands of decorative plaiting consisting of parallel chevron/zigzag lines on each side of the cap following the curve of the crest from the narrowest round the ear containers to the widest and boldest near the crest; two similarly bold bands of the same decorative pattern are on each side of the crest, the top of which has six longitudinal dark narrow decorative lines.
- Production date
- 18thC (before 1793)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 8 centimetres (of crest)
-
Height: 31 centimetres
-
Width: 10.50 centimetres (of crest)
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Width: 16 centimetres
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Depth: 28 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Beasley collection register: 'Collected by Mr. E. Bell, one of the crew of Vancouver's expeditionary ship about the year 1793, and by him presented to H.C. Shelley who passed it on with other specimens to the United Service Museum, Whitehall. Purchased from the Museum through Col. Hughes, Librarian.'
See J.C.H. King, 'Vancouver's ethnography: a preliminary description of five inventories from the voyages of 1791-95', Journal of the History of Collections, Vol.6, No.1, 1994, Oxford University Press, p.55
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1944
- Acquisition notes
- Beasley collection number 2588 - catalogued 15.7.1930.
Beasley purchased the helmet from the Institution through Col. Hughes, Librarian.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1944,02.717
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: 2588 (Original Beasley Collection Number)