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1886.1.1256

Barkcloth. Black. With 'fish-scale' appearance. Very fragile.

1886.1.1256

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Collection type
Object
Description
Barkcloth. Black. With 'fish-scale' appearance. Very fragile.
Long description
A three-layered piece of barkcloth. The two lower layers are a plain white cloth and the upper layer is a black cloth. The uppermost black cloth has been decorated using a black paint or resin with small dots reminiscent of a fish scale pattern. The black cloth appears to have been lightly pasted to the two layers of white cloth. A curved cut is located in the upper right corner of the object. [Emma Schmitt (Conservation Intern) 2013; JU 18/11/2013]
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: max 840 mm, Length: max 1270 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1886.1.1256 Other numbers: Forster 18
Research and responses

According to Peter Gathercole this barkcloth is definitely from Tahiti. [NM 26/2/97]

See Conservation Department of Pitt Rivers for the results of XRF analysis of surface pigment carried out by Vincent Daniels, British Museum, to show iron content. [MdeA 16/1/1998]

For the results of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of a sample taken from this cloth, see page 101 of 'The Characteristics of Modern and Old Barkcloth (Tapa)', by Vincent Daniels, in The Conservator, Vol. 29 (2005/6), pp. 95-104. [HR 22/6/2006; JC 9 10 2008]

Adrienne Kaeppler thought that the fish-scale appearance of the barkcloth might possibly be the result of applying a European paint to the surface, eg a lead-based white - this should be investigated. It is also possible that the black part of this barkcloth was traded from the Australs or another island. Also compare this barkcloth with that used on the cape of the PRM second Mourner's costume headdress. [JU 14/06/2013]

The barkcloth was analysed using a handheld XRF unit (Oxford Instruments XMET 5100) by Kelly Domoney, Postgraduate Research Assistant and Cranfield University [JU 08/08/2013]

Associated publications
Listed as one of numbers 267-303 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.... 267-303. Thirty-six specimens of cloth, manufactured by the natives of New Zealand, made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree.' [JC 9 10 2008 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]): '18. a black piece. The surface has a fish-scale appearance. Too fragile to exhibit. Dimensions: 127 cm. x 84 cm.' [NMM, undated; JC 9 10 2008] 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; JC 9 10 2008] Listed on page 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: 'Piece of tapa three layers thick; outer surface black with fish scale appearance (? from mallet).' [JP 1/8/2002] 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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