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1886.1.1230

Barkcloth, very finely beaten with a beige ground colour, patterned over most of the surface with red/brown cross hatched pattern and a more elaborate border pattern on one short side in black. [HR 28/9/2005]

1886.1.1230

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Collection type
Object
Description
Barkcloth, very finely beaten with a beige ground colour, patterned over most of the surface with red/brown cross hatched pattern and a more elaborate border pattern on one short side in black. [HR 28/9/2005]
Person
Field collector Andrew Bloxam
Field collector HMS Blonde
PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1825?, uncertain
Date collected
1825 ?
Acquisition information
Transferred: 19/04/1886
Materials and processes
Material Bark Fibre Plant, Material Bark Cloth Textile Plant, Material Pigment, Process Beaten, Process Stamped
Dimensions
Length 1275 mm, Width 840 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1886.1.1230
Research and responses

This barkcloth was examined by Adrienne Kaeppler, Smithsonian Institute, on 13-14 June 2013. She noted that this is barkcloth looks Hawaiian. The border design is made using bamboo stamps. This method is only done in Hawaii. The design is only on the top side. [MJD 18/06/2013]

Associated publications
The collection donated to the Ashmolean by Andrew Bloxam in 1826 is discussed briefly on page 25 of ‘The Bloxam Brothers in the Pacific, 1825’, by P[eter]. Gathercole, in Worcester College Record, 1969–1971, pp. 22–7: ‘The ethnographic collection brought back by the Bloxam brothers did not remain undivided for very long. Twenty-eight items were donated to the Ashmoloan Museum in the same year [1826] by Andrew, who became a Scholar and subsequently a Fellow of Worcester [College, Oxford]. These included 14 pieces of barkcloth, 5 bamboo stamps for printing decorative patterns on barkcloth, a fine basalt adze and other tools, and a stone disc used in a type of bowling game. Among other pieces were two bracelets of boars’ tusks and a wooden human image, 29.8 cm high, which was a fine example of its class. Fortunately, we know from the [i.e. Andrew Bloxam’s] Diary that it was purchased at Honolulu on 21 May 1825, along with another specimen which Andrew gave to Lord Byron and is now missing, Andrew’s collection was transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1856 and was recently featured in a special display.’ [JC 19 4 2016]

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