1886.1.1234

Collection type

Object

Description

Barkcloth. Yellow decorated with red circles. [MJD 27/2/2009]

Long description

Barkcloth made from two layers, joined together along the long edges, probably with arrowroot paste, and decorated with red stamped circles. The upper layer is thicker, with coarse beater marks present. The surface is decorated with circle motifs in various configurations. The lower layer is much finer, with fine beater marks present. Approximately one half of the lower layer has traces of red dye. There is one circle motif stamped on the lower layer. [JU 15/11/2012]

Geographical reference

French Polynesia (Overseas Collectivity of France)

Oceania > Polynesia > French Polynesia (Overseas Collectivity of France)

Society Islands Tahiti

Person

Field collector Johann Reinhold Forster

Field collector Georg Forster

PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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 Bark Fibre Plant, Material Mulberry Leaf Plant, Material Pigment, Material Bark Cloth Textile Plant, Process Beaten, Process Stencilled

Dimensions

Length: max 1650 mm, Width: max 1190 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1886.1.1234 Other numbers: Forster 15

Associated publications

Listed as catalogue number 109 and illustrated in colour on page 109 of James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific, by Adrienne l. Kaeppler et al. (London: Thames & Hudson, 2009) with the caption: 'Piece of barkcloth | Society Islands, French Polynesia (probably Tahiti), by May 1774 | Barkcloth, dye, pigment, 160 x 253 cm | Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1886.1.1234 (Forster 15) | One of three pieces of yellow barkcloth decorated with red circles and half-circles given by the Forsters to the University of Oxford. The decoration was probably stamped on with the end of a piece of bamboo. J[eremy]. C[oote].' [FB 08/04/2013] 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 (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, no date[1970]). The text from the 'Forster' manuscript is followed by the following notes: 'Actually three pieces. Dimensions 253cm. x 160cm.; 157cm. x 114cm.; 540cm. x 122cm. They recall the piece worn by Omai in the well known drawing by Nathaniel Dance, 1775. (See copy exhibited). Was he perhaps fitted out with items from this Collection? Apart from the tapa, he carries a headrest and sunshade (cf. Nos. 30 & 136) and a headdress (cf. No. 40, now lost).' Listed as one of number 3 under ‘Tahiti...Bark Cloth’ on page 130 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): '3. Oxford (8-22 [This last number is incorrect and should read 20]), 13 pieces from the Forster collection including three pieces belonging to the mourning dress and a turban used to fasten the large helmet. '. [JP 23/7/2002] Illustrated in black and white on page 274 of Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World, by Johann Reinhold Forster (edited by Nicholas Thomas, Harriet Guest, and Michael Dettelbach (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996). [JC 30 12 1999] This item is listed on page 467 of 'Appendix A: Catalogue of Society Island Objects with Secure Eighteenth-Century Provenance' in 'Shaping the Body Politic: Gender, Status, and Power in the Art of Eighteenth-Century Tahiti and the Society Islands', by Anne Elizabeth D'Alleva (New York: Columbia University, Ph.D. thesis, 1997). She describes it as follows: 'Large piece of pale brown (originally yellow) bark cloth with stamped bamboo patterns. Red edges all around except one short side, which appears to be cut with scissors. Cut is post printing. One area of cloth with circular bamboo prints in a grid pattern, another area with random circes [sic], filled-in circles, and back-to-back half-circles.' However, D'Alleva lists the inventory number for this item as being either A.M. 1234 or 1235. From the description (above), and the label she mentions (Yellow printed label: '15' [Note 1886.1.1234 ha a white paper label (see vellum volumes entry)]) it would seem that she is in fact referring to A.M. 1235 (1886.1.1235) and NOT 1886.1.1234. 1886.1.1234 is also listed on page 475. However D'Alleva again is confused about the inventory number and lists it as being either A.M. 1234 or 1235. She describes the object as 'Large piece of pale brown (originally yellow) bark cloth with stamped bamboo patterns. Red edges all around except one short side, which appears to be cut with scissors. Cut is post printing. One area of cloth with circular bamboo prints in a grid pattern, another area with random circels [sic], filled-in circles, and back-to-back half-circles.' Whilst this last description does NOT match 1886.1.1235 it is not close enough to be attributed without doubt to 1886.1.1234 either. Furthermore the measurements given to this item in this second entry (157 x 114 cm) in no exactly match those given to 1886.1.1235 in the Museum's computer records. It is not clear why this confusion between records has arisen and why D'Alleva was unsure whether the item in either entry was [1886.1.]1234 or [1886.1.]1235. [JP 31/7/2002] Published as part of the Forster Collection on a dedicated website at www.prm.ox.ac.uk/forster (from February 2001). [JC 7 7 2005] 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]

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