Flax specimen.

Collection type: Object
Description: Flax specimen.
Geographical reference: New Zealand
Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > New Zealand
Cultural groups: Māori
Person: Field collector HMS Westmoreland; PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Date / Period: Date made: Before 27/11/1821
Date collected: 11 July to 27 November 1821
Acquisition information: Transferred: 10/02/1886
Materials and processes: Material Flax (NZ) Plant, Process Twisted, Process Plaited
Dimensions: Length: max 200 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1886.1.1138.2 Other numbers: 258 259
Associated publications: Five of these six specimens of twisted flax (1886.1.1138.1, 1886.1.1138.2, 1886.1.1183.3, 1886.1.1139.1, and 1886.1.1139.2; 1886.1.1139.3 is omitted) are referred to on page 113 of Tracking Travelling Taonga: A Narrative Review of How Maori Items Got to London from 1798, to Salem in 1802, 1807 and 1812, and Elsewhere up to 1840, by Rhys Richards (Paremata: Paremata Press, 2015): ‘In the Pitt Rivers Museum items 1886.1.1138.1, 2, and 3, plus 1886.1.1139.1 and 2, are five samples of flax, some mixed with coconut fibre, which were sent to England in HMS Westmoreland. She was at the Bay of Islands from 11 July to 27 November 1821. She was returning from London and Sydney with two chiefs, Hongo and Waikato, whom Rev. Samuel Marsden and Thomas Kendall had taken to London to see the King.’ [JC 12 5 2017]

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