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1886.1.1541

Imitation whale tooth ornament made from shell.

On display

1886.1.1541

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Collection type
Object
Description
Imitation whale tooth ornament made from shell.
Long description
Imitation whale tooth ornament, made from shell. There is a perforation at one end and a groove running along one side. [JFK 23/2/2009]
Geographical reference
French Polynesia (Overseas Collectivity of France)
Oceania > Polynesia > French Polynesia (Overseas Collectivity of France)
Marquesas Islands, Tahuata Island (St Christina) Vaitahu Bay (Resolution Bay)
Date / Period
Date made: Before 11/04/1774
Date collected
Between 8 and 12 April 1774
Acquisition information
Transferred: 19/04/1886
Materials and processes
Material Shell, Material Bark Cloth Textile Plant, Process Polished, Process Perforated
Dimensions
Length: max 95 mm, Width: max 27 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1886.1.1541 Other numbers: Forster 140
Research and responses

Kathie Way, Senior Curator of Mollusca at the Natural History Museum, London, positively identified the shell as a helmet shell (family Cassidae), specifically Cassis tuberosa. The dark lines visible on the surface of the shell represent the characteristic ground down teeth around the lip of the shell. [JU 19/09/2012]

Associated publications
Listed as number 195 (?) on page 184 of A Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum Descriptive of the Zoological Specimens, Antiquities, Coins, and Miscellaneous Curiosities (Oxford, 1836): 'South Sea Islands, &c.... 195. Shell ornament. - Otaheite.' [JC 8 7 2005] Listed (with 1886.1.1540; Forster 139) 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]): '139. 140. Two bones or teeth of porpesses? hung before the neck. Imitation whale tooth ornaments, made from shell. One specimen has a cord of tapa attached. Lengths: 9.5 cm. and 8.5 cm.' [NMM, undated; JC 21 7 2005, 1 7 2015] Listed (with 1886.1.1540; Forster 139) as number 4 under ‘Marquesas Islands... Other Ornaments’ on page 167 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): '4. Shells carved to resemble whale tooth ornaments, Oxford (139, 140). Lengths 9.5 cm, 8.5 cm. One has a cord of bark cloth. Evidence: Forster collection. Literature: Gathercole, n.d. (1970) [see above]'. [JP 24/7/2002; JC 8 7 2005] Discussed, with 1886.1.1540, on page 156 of 'Marquesan Art in the Early Contact Period, 1774–1821, by Carol Susan Ivory (Seattle: University of Washington, Ph.D. thesis, 1990). Ivory writes: 'The Forsters collected two teeth-shaped ornaments now in the Pitt Rivers Museum ([Forster] 139 and 140, Fig. 76)....' Also listed on page 402 of 'Appendix C Objects Collected 1774–1821, By Date Collected' and on page 406 of 'Appendix D Objects Collected 1774–1821, By Object Type'. Ivory also reproduces, as Figure 76 on page 317, a photograph of this object (and others) in the 'permanent' display on the PRM's lower gallery: 'Figure 76. From top: Head ornament (fiber), Gorget (seeds), Ornament (hair); Neck ornaments, PITT 133, 129, 137, 139, 140.' [JC 14 3 2015] 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: Ornament, Reproduction, Barkcloth

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