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1895.22.35.2

Bamboo lid belonging to bamboo lime box vessel. The lid of the box is decorated with incised blackened designs of several frigate birds, a snake and two fish. The lid has a circular wooden top which is carved with geometric designs on the upper surface. For the bamboo box vessel see 1895.22.35 .1. For the spatulas see 1895.22.35 .3 and 1895.22.35 .4. For the bag of lime powder see 1895.22.35 .5. [CW [OPS move] 13/07/2016]

1895.22.35.2

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Collection type
Object
Description
Bamboo lid belonging to bamboo lime box vessel. The lid of the box is decorated with incised blackened designs of several frigate birds, a snake and two fish. The lid has a circular wooden top which is carved with geometric designs on the upper surface. For the bamboo box vessel see 1895.22.35 .1. For the spatulas see 1895.22.35 .3 and 1895.22.35 .4. For the bag of lime powder see 1895.22.35 .5. [CW [OPS move] 13/07/2016]
Long description
Inscribed bamboo lime box [.1] with lid [.2]. Inside the box are two sticks [.3 - .4], possibly used as spatulae. The box contains lime powder [.5]. Bamboo lime box with lid. Both the box and lid are cylindrical. The box has a flat round wooden base fitted into the cylinder of bamboo. The main body of the box is decorated with incised designs and an inscription. The designs and inscription have been rubbed with black pigment to make them stand out. The inscription runs around the centre of the body of the box and are difficult to decipher as some of the letters are reversed. It appears to read 'CROSSE & BLACKM ET CROSSE & BLVCKK'. The lid of the box is decorated with incised blackened designs of several frigate birds, a snake and two fish. The lid has a circular wooden top which is carved with geometric designs on the upper surface. The box contains a quantity of powdered lime and two spatulae. [MdeA 18/11/2005]
Geographical reference
Solomon Islands
Oceania > Melanesia > Solomon Islands
New Georgia Ramada Island Nggerasi District
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1894
Date collected
1893 - 1894
Acquisition information
Donated: 09/1895
Materials and processes
Material Bamboo Plant, Material Coconut Fibre Plant, Material Lime, Process Inscribed
Dimensions
Height: max 45 mm, Depth: max 62 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1895.22.35.2
Research and responses

For an account of Somerville's collection from the Solomon Islands, see 'The H. B. T. Somerville Collection of Artefacts from the Solomon Islands in the Pitt Rivers Museum’, by Deborah Waite, in The General’s Gift: A Celebration of the Pitt Rivers Museum Centenary, 1884–1984 (JASO Occasional Papers, no. 3), edited by B. A. L. Cranstone and Steven Seidenberg (Oxford: JASO, 1884), pp. 41–52. (Copy in RDF: Collectors: Somerville.) [JC 24 2 2007]

For an account of Somerville's collecting in the Solomon Islands, see 'Notes and Queries, Science, and “Curios”: Lieutenant Boyle Somerville’s Ethnographic Collecting in the Solomon Islands, 1893–1895’, by Deborah Waite, in JASO: Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, Vol. XXXI, no. 3 (Michaelmas 2000), pp. 277-308. (Copy in RDF: Collectors: Somerville.) [JC 24 2 2007]

Search terms: Narcotic, Box, Tool, Vessel, Lime Accessory, Betel Accessory, Lid, Spatula

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