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1923.31.1.1

Pair of ear-pendants of shark's teeth with red sealing-wax bases, each with a length of black ribbon.

1923.31.1.1

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Collection type
Object
Description
Pair of ear-pendants of shark's teeth with red sealing-wax bases, each with a length of black ribbon.
Cultural groups
Māori
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1923
Date collected
By 1923
Acquisition information
Donated: 1923
Materials and processes
Material Shark Tooth Fish, Material Wax, Material Ribbon Textile, Process Perforated, Process Woven
Dimensions
Length: max 85 mm approx, including ribbon
Object numbers
Accession number: 1923.31.1.1 Accession number: 1923.31.1.2
Research and responses

For general information, see The Old-Time Maori (by Makereti sometime Chieftainess of the Arawa Tribe, known in New Zealand as Maggie Papakura; collected and edited with a biography by T. K. Penniman), London: Victor Gollancz, 1938. [JC 14 5 1996]

See also ‘Makereti’, by Hélène La Rue, in Collectors: Collecting for the Pitt Rivers Museum, ed. Alison Petch (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, no date [1996]), pp. 31-35. [JC 11 6 1997]

The Maori word 'mako' can mean both 'shark' and 'shark's tooth'. Derived from this word is the common name of the Mako shark, Isurus oxyrinchus. See Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mako [El.B DDF Body Arts Project 2010/2011 18/11/2010]

Associated publications
Object: Intrepid Women: Adventures in Anthropology, Editor: Julia Nicholson; Oxford, 2025, Page: 128, Page illustrated: 128, Notes: Reproduced in colour as figure 5.7 on page 128 of Chapter Five, 'Mākereti: Aotearoa New Zealand and Oxford, 1926-30', written by Ngahuia te Awekotuku and Jeremy Coote. Caption: '5.7 Pair of ear pendants, made of teeth from the mako shark (Isurus glaucus) and sealing wax on black ribbon (8.5 cm long). Donated by Mākereti in June 1923 (1923.31.1).'
For a discussion of the circumstances in which some of the objects that once belonged to Makereti were acquired by the Museum, see ‘Makereti and the Pitt Rivers Museum, 1921–1930, and Beyond’, by Ngahuia te Awekotuku and Jeremy Coote, in Pacific Presences 2: Oceanic Art and European Museums (Pacific Presences series, 4b), edited by Lucie Carreau, Alison Clark, Alana Jelinek, Erna Lilje, and Nicholas Thomas (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2018), pp. 277–95, 460–63. These objects are discussed on page 281 and illustrated in colour as Figure 23.6 (PRM0001884605540) on page 282: "Pair of ear-pendants, shark's tooth and sealing-wax on black ribbon, 85 m long.'). (Printout of article in RDF: Biographies: Makereti.) [JC 4 1 2019]

Search terms: Ornament, Ear Ornament

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