1886.1.1555

Collection type

Object

Description

Comb with sixteen teeth of coconut leaflet midribs fixed by decorative sinnet bindings. Upper ends of teeth bound together to form a point. [MJD 19/2/2009]

Long description

A comb with sixteen teeth held together by finely woven coconut fibre, in dark and light brown. The teeth are made from coconut leaflet mid-ribs, and have been split at the top. The split ribs have been shaped and gathered into a point, which in turn has been covered with a decorative design in two colours of coconut fibre. [JU 18/12/2013]

Geographical reference

Tonga

Oceania > Polynesia > Tonga

Person

Field collector Johann Reinhold Forster

Field collector Georg Forster

PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Date / Period

Date made: Before 29/06/1774

Date collected

Between 2 and 7 October 1773 or between 26 and 29 June 1774

Acquisition information

Transferred: 19/04/1886

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Sennit Coconut Seed Fibre Plant, Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Twined Woven

Dimensions

Width: max 63 mm, Length: max 160 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1886.1.1555 Other numbers: Part of Forster 97

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 Friendly Isles (Tonga)...97. a parcel of combs. Three have been preserved 1886.1.1555, 1886.1.1556, 1886.1.1557]; the teeth are of coconut leaflet midribs fixed by decorative sinnet bindings. Lengths: 12.5 cm.; 16 cm.; 12.5 cm.' [unsigned, NMM?, undated; JC 14 8 2015] Listed under numbers 9-11 under ‘Tonga...Combs’ on page 211 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): '9-11. Three combs, Oxford (97). Lengths 12.5 cm, 16 cm, 12.5 cm. Evidence: Forster collection., second voyage. Literature: Gathercole, n.d. (1970) [see above]'. [JP 24/7/2002] 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: Ritual and Ceremonial, Toilet, Ornament, Comb, Toilet Article, Hair Ornament