- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Adze with stone blade fixed to a wooden haft with a card of plaited sennit. [El.B 28/11/2011]
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1870
- Date collected
- By 1870
- Acquisition information
- Transferred: 1886, uncertain
- Materials and processes
- Material Basalt Stone, Material Wood Plant, Material Sennit Coconut Seed Fibre Plant, Process Plaited, Process Carved, Process Ground, Process Bound
- Dimensions
- Length: max 330 mm, Width: max 165 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1886.1.1337
- Research and responses
This object was examined by Steven Hooper (UEA) during a research visit in December 2011. He made the following comments: 'This is from the early 19th century. A fine example, binding tight and blade projects at back.' [El.B 15/12/2011]
Edward Evans's entry for item 1886.1.1627 in the 'List of Anthropological objects transferred from the Ashmolean to the Pitt Rivers' museum 1886', records 'From the Fiji Islands, Brought home by and given by Mr. W. Drewett Oxford 1870'. It thus seems safe to conclude that all the Fijian objects donated by Drewett were brought from Fiji by him. [JC 28 1 2015]
- Associated publications
- Featured in colour on page 187 of 'Fiji - Art and Life in the Pacific' by Steven Hooper, UEA 2016 wuth the caption '127 MATU NI IVI (ANZE FOR IVI NUTS) Fiji: early to mid 19th century Wood, stone, coir, coconut leaf reticulum; L.33.0 cm Oxford, PRM: 1886.1.1337. Acquired 1886: ex Ashmolean Museum ; label 'An adze with bassalt head tied on with sennit from the Fiji Islands. Given by W. Drewett Esq Oxford 1870' This fine example of an ivi adze with a rich patina appears to have seen good use and had not been recently bound when collected. It is unusual in that the blade extends beyond the heel of the haft. The blades are not likely to have previously been used for woodwork, but to have been particular to this purpose. [FB 8/11/2016]
1886.1.1337
Adze with stone blade fixed to a wooden haft with a card of plaited sennit. [El.B 28/11/2011]
1886.1.1337
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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