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1886.1.1179

Plant fibre skirt made from bundles of fibre tied to a waistband. [FB 06/11/2014; JC 14 3 2015]

On display

1886.1.1179

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Collection type
Object
Description
Plant fibre skirt made from bundles of fibre tied to a waistband. [FB 06/11/2014; JC 14 3 2015]
Long description
Plant fibre skirt made by knotting lengths of ?hibiscus bast fibre around a twisted plant fibre waistband. Some of the plant fibre may have been dyed red/orange. [JU 20/01/2015]
Date / Period
Date made: Before 04/06/1774?, uncertain
Date collected
Between 17 August and 18 September 1773, or between 22 April and 4 June 1774?
Acquisition information
Transferred: 19/04/1886
Materials and processes
Material Plant Fibre, Material Pigment, Process Split, Process Tied, Process Dyed
Dimensions
Length: max 760 mm, Width: max 630 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1886.1.1179 Other numbers: Forster 36 Other numbers: 1179
Associated publications
Listed as item 258 on page 185 of A Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum Descriptive of the Zoological Specimens, Antiquities, Coins, and Miscellaneous Curiosities (Oxford, 1836): 'South Sea Islands, &c.... 258, 259. Three specimens of flax, &c. used in making the above [i.e. '236–257. Specimens of New Zealand matting, and cloths of flax].' [JC 14 3 2015] Listed according to the 'Forster list' numbering system in 'From the Islands of the South Seas 1773–4': An Exhibition of a Collection Made on Capn. Cook’s Second Voyage of Discovery by J. R. Forster—A Short Guide, by Peter Gathercole (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, no date [1970]): '36. an Otaheitian fisherman's petticoat of coloured threads/filaments of bark. Missing.' [unsigned, undated; JC 14 3 2015] Listed as number 5 under ‘Otaheite or King George III Island (Tahiti and the Society islands)... Other Garments’ on page 129 of 'Artificial Curiosities': Being an Exposition of Native Manufactures Collected on the Three Pacific Voyages of Captain James Cook, R.N. at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, January 18, 1978 - August 31, 1978 on the Occasion of the Bicentennial of the European Discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain Cook—January 18, 1778 (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 65), by Adrienne L. Kaeppler (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1978): '5. Waist garment of shredded fiber, Oxford (36). Missing. Evidence: Forster collection. Second Voyage. Literature: Gathercole, n.d. (1970) [see above].' [JC 14 3 2015] For an account of the history of the collection of which this is part, see 'The Cook-Voyage Collections at Oxford, 1772–1775', by Jeremy Coote, in Jeremy Coote (ed.), Cook-Voyage Collections of 'Artificial Curiosities' in Britain and Ireland, 1771–2015 (MEG Occasional Paper No. 5), Oxford: Museum Ethnographers Group (2015), pp. 74–122. (Copy in RDF: Researchers: Jeremy Coote (Cook-Voyage Collections).) [JC 9 6 2016]

Search terms: Clothing, Petticoat, Apron, Skirt

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