Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1893.78.68

Part of bone fish hook.

1893.78.68

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Part of bone fish hook.
Geographical reference
New Zealand
Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand
Chatham Islands [Rekohu, Wharekauri]
Cultural groups
Moriori
Person
Field collector Albert Clough
PRM source Henry C. Palmer
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1893
Date collected
By 1893
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1893
Materials and processes
Material Bone, Process Carved
Dimensions
Length: max 87 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1893.78.68 Other numbers: 67
Research and responses

This could be Abner Clough, 1840-1910, see biographies [AP 04/08/2009]

It seems likely that H.C. Palmer is actually Henry C. Palmer who was engaged to collect natural history specimens etc for Lionel Walter Rothschild, he was in the Chatham Islands around 1890 [AP 14/08/2009]

Examined by Chris Paulin (Natural Environment Projects Officer at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) during a visit to the PRM 24-26 June 2009. For an account of Paulin's project, see copy of his unpublished 'Research Report: Māori Fishhooks in European Museums - Winston Churchill Fellowship 2009' in RDF: Researchers: Paulin. See also: 'Māori Fishhooks in European Museums', by Chris D. Paulin, in Tuhinga: Records of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, no. 21 (2010), pp. 13-41, esp. 27-29 (copy in RDF: Researchers: Paulin). NB Paulin does not list the item in his list of 'Hooks Examined' (see page 29 of his article), but the item is one of those made available for him to examine. [JC 12 8 2010]

Associated publications
See Balfour, H. (1918) Some specimens from the Chatham Islands. Man 18, 145-148. [AS 15/07/2010] Illustrated (second from right) in black and white in Plate II (opposite page 3) in Fish Hooks (Pacific Island Records), by Harry G. Beasley (London: Seeley, Service & Co., Ltd, 1928). Beasley writes under the heading 'Part I. Polynesia' and the sub-heading 'Chatham Islands' (page 3): 'Pl. II, is from the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; all are made of whalbone. The central one [1893.78.72] shows to what extent some of these Chatham Island hooks have become decayed through age; it lacks the lug at the end of the shank. This measures 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm.), while that on the left [1893.78.71] is 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm.).' (The image reproduced is a detail from PRM image 000081277.) [JC 24 6 2016]

Search terms: Fishing, Tool, Fishing Accessory, Hook

Further items to explore