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1886.1.1248

Large white, fine barkcloth. A single piece. [JU 21/06/2013]

1886.1.1248

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Collection type
Object
Description
Large white, fine barkcloth. A single piece. [JU 21/06/2013]
Long description
A large piece of fine, white barkcloth, made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry, Brousonettia papyrifera. [JU 13/12/2013]
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 Bark Cloth Textile Plant, Process Beaten
Dimensions
Width 2250 mm, Length 12500 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1886.1.1248 Other numbers: Forster 13
Research and responses

A sample of the barkcloth was given to Caroline Cartwright of the Department of Conservation and Scientific research at the British Museum for identification.[JU 13/12/2012] The sample was identified as being from the paper mulberry (Brousonnetia papyrifera) See RDF for the report [JU 13/12/2013]

Surface swabs were sent to Andrew Charlton of FERA for research into pesticide residues [JU 11/04/2013]

Associated publications
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: 'In three sections. Dimensions: 609cm. x 477cm.: 304cm. x 185cm.: 365cm. x 101cm.' 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] Listed on page 473-474 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: 'Very large piece of well-made white tapa.' [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]

Search terms: Barkcloth