1884.11.46

Collection type

Object

Description

Short length of twisted plant fibre cord attached to a large iron fish hook with barbed point [RTS 21/7/2004].

Long description

Short length of grass cord made from two strands twisted together and knotted at either end. This has been tied onto the end of an iron fish hook with a loose knot. The hook has been made from a single piece of iron hammered to shape, and consists of a pointed end with roughly round section, bent over to form a loop, at the top of a thicker, straight shaft that turns into a large hook hammered flat so that the body now has a rectangular section. This then tapers in to form a sharp point with a single barb at its base, both of which have rounded sections. The object is complete and intact, although the cord is somewhat brittle. The iron is currently a metallic gray colour (Pantone 422C), while the cord is a light yellowish brown (Pantone 7508C). The cord has a diameter of 1.5 mm; the hook is 133 mm long, with a width of 59.5 mm across the base of the hook part and 12.3 mm across the top loop. The barb is 22 mm long and 4 mm thick; the flat part of the hook is 9.3 mm wide and 5.3 mm thick, and the straight shaft has a diameter of 6 mm. The hook and cord weigh 40.7 grams together [RTS 21/7/2004].

Geographical reference

Nigeria

Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria

Sudan, Republic of

Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of

Cultural groups

Nupe

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector John Petherick

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1865?, uncertain

Date collected

?1865

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884

Materials and processes

Material Iron Metal, Material Plant Fibre, Material Grass Fibre Plant, Process Forged (Metal), Process Hammered, Process Twisted, Process Knotted

Dimensions

Length 133 mm, Width: max 59.5 mm, Length 22 mm barb, Diameter: max 6 mm shaft, Weight 40.7 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.11.46 PR Cat other PR nos: 1730

Research and responses

This hook was said to have been acquired by John Petherick in 1865, from the 'Nussi', better known as the Nupe. This date is much later than most of the Petherick material in the Pitt Rivers Museum, which is usually said to have been collected in 1858, and which was acquired at auction in 1862. Nor does Petherick seem to have encountered the Nupe himself, as they are not mentioned in any of his published autobiographies or articles. This suggests that he was not the actual collector in this case, assuming that the association with Petherick is correct. The museum does have another possible Nigerian object, supposedly from Petherick's collection (see 1884.140.837), and it may be that these are things he had acquired through another party, rather than directly. As his 1862 auction catalogue indicates, he did own ethnographic items from other parts of the world, including Lagos and China (see The Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan). Note also that 1865 was the year in which Petherick shipped objects back to England when returning from Sudan for the second time. We are not told how Pitt Rivers obtained this object, but it was probably part of his collection by 1874 at least, when he sent it to the Bethnal Green Museum for display; it was also displayed in the South Kensington Museum, and transferred back from there to become part of the Pitt Rivers Museum founding collection in 1884 [RTS 29/8/2005].

Search terms: Fishing, Hook, Fishing Accessory