- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Open work mask of turtleshell, very small eyes, crescent below with nut-shell rattles.
- Long description
- Open work mask made of several pieces of turtleshell perforated and tied together. Long pointed nose. Very small shell eyes inlaid. Nut shell rattles hang below the bottom crescent, suspended on strings of plaited coconut fibre. Painted and inlaid with white pigment.
- Geographical reference
- Queensland Torres Strait Islands
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Date made: Possibly before 1877
- Date collected
- By 1877
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Material Turtleshell Reptile, Material Coconut Fibre Plant, Material Plant Nut-husk, Material Shell, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Inlaid, Process Painted, Process Perforated, Process Tied, Process Openwork
- Dimensions
- Width: max 260 mm, Length 390 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.114.3 PR Cat other PR nos: 3316
- Associated publications
- Reference: Masked histories : turtle shell masks and Torres Strait Islander people, Main author: Leah Lui-Chivizhe; Melbourne, 2022, Page: Plate, p.132, Page illustrated: Plate, Notes: Plate on unnumbered page 7 of plates, between pages 106-107.
- Illustrated in black and white as Figure 6 in Plate XXVIII in Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Eastern Islanders, Volume VI of Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (Cambridge: University Press, 1908). Discussed on page 289 of 'The Cult of Bomai and Malu', by A. C. Haddon and C. S. Myers, in the same volume, pp. 281-313. Haddon and Myers discuss the Bomai mask and a cardboard model (now in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge). The continue: 'The characteristic feature of this mask is that it consisted of bars, the only other example of this style known to us is the mask from an unknown provenance in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford (pl. XXVIII, fig. 6), of which Mr. H. Balfour has kindly sent us a photograph. This mask is 293 mm. long, the face is 168 mm. long and 228 mm. broad, excluding the remaining ear. The left ear and arm are missing, the right arm has only four digits. Several gòa seeds (Pangium edule) are suspended to the lower crescent. Unfortunately, no information is available with regard to this mask, but there is no reason to doubt that it came from Torres Straits.' [JC 23 4 2010] Illustrated in black and white on page 103 of Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, by Roslyn Poignant (London: Paul Hamlyn, 1967). Caption (same page) reads: 'A turtle-shell mask worn in the Bomai-Malu cult ceremonies of the Torres Straits. The culture hero Bomai was sometimes said to have arrived at the island of Mer before his nephew Malu. Other informants claimed that Bomai was Malu's secret name. He was called on in times of illness, or danger, for example during the capsizing of a canoe.' [JC 11 4 2001] Illustrated in black and white as Fig. 25.21 on p. 354 of The Art of the Pacific Islands by Peter Gathercole, Adrienne L. Kaeppler and Douglas Newton (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1979). Caption (same page) reads: '25.21 / MASK / Turtleshell, seeds, paint / 33 (13) high / Papua New Guinea, Torres Strait / Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, England, 67-3316 [sic].' [LM; JC 23 4 2010] Illustrated in black and white as catalogue number 76 on page 35 of Masks (London: Commonwealth Institute, 1980). Caption reads: '76 Ritual mask, turtle shell inlaid with pearl shell, pendant nut rattles, Melanesia, Torres Straits Islands. Thought to be connected with fertility ritual. H. 31. Lent by the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1884.114.3.' (There is a copy of the catalogue in the RDF for 1934.67.15.) [MdeA 16/07/2008; JC 23 4 2010] Illustrated in colour on page 77 of Journeys through Dreamtime: Oceanian Myth (Myth and Mankind), by Tony Allan, Fergus Fleming, and Michael Kerrigan (Amsterdam: Time-Life Books, 1999); where it is captioned: 'Torres Strait turtleshell mask with rattles made of nut husks, c. 19th century. Emblematic of the culture heroes, such items were used in funerary ceremonies'. [JC 17 8 1999] Published as a PRM postcard: 'Turtle-shell mask with nut-shell rattles. Masks like this were emblems of the culture heroes and used in initiation and funerary ceremonies. Original Pitt Rivers Collection. Australia - Torres Strait (1884.114.3)'. [unsigned, undated] Illustrated in colour on page 35 of Pitt Rivers Museum: An Introduction, by Julia Cousins (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 2004). Caption (same page) reads: 'Mask made of turtle-shell, with nut-shell rattles, from the Torres Strait Islands, Australia; part of the founding collection. Such marks were emblems of culture heroes and used in initiation and funerary ceremonies.' [JC 8 10 2004] Illustrated in colour on the front and back covers of Sympathetic Magic, by Brian Fewster (Leicester: Poor Tom's Press, 2008). This is a collection of poetry, one poem of which ('Mask', on page 60) is 'about' the mask. (Copy of book in Balfour Library, photocopy of poem etc. in RDF.) [JC 9 4 2008] Illustrated in colour as Figure 10 on page 101 of ‘The Pitt Rivers Museum Revisited’, by Catherine Elliott Weinberg, in Tribal Art, Vol. 14, no. 3 (no. 56; Summer 2010), pp. 96–105. Caption (on page 100) reads: 'Fig. 10: Openwork mask. Torres Strait Islands, Australia. Before 1877. From the Museum's Founding Collection, PRM 1884.114.3. (c) Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.' [JC 24 9 2010] Illustrated in colour on page 22 of The Pitt Rivers Museum: A World Within, by Michael O’Hanlon (London: Scala, 2014). Caption (page 23) reads: ‘10 (opposite) Turtle-shell mask with pendant nut rattles. Torres Strait Islands, Australia Height 390 mm Donated by General Pitt-Rivers 1884.114.3’ [MJD (Verve) 18/2/2016]
Search terms: Mask, Music, Ritual and Ceremonial, Religion, Musical Instrument, Ceremonial Object, Rattle