1920.100.53

Collection type

Object

Description

Palm-leaf fishing kite. In a glass-fronted frame.

Geographical reference

Solomon Islands

Oceania > Melanesia > Solomon Islands

San Cristobal Santa Ana Island Itapa

Person

Field collector Robert Henry Codrington

Field collector Melanesian Mission

PRM source Robert Henry Codrington

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1903

Date collected

By 1903

Acquisition information

Donated: 1903

Materials and processes

Material Palm Leaf Plant, Material Wood Plant, Process Stitched, Process Bound, Process Knotted

Dimensions

Length: max 605 mm frame, Width: max 375 mm frame, Depth: max 25 mm frame

Object numbers

Accession number: 1920.100.53

Research and responses

For an account of the technology and distribution of kite-fishing, see 'Kite-Fishing', by Henry Balfour, in Essays and Studies Presented to William Ridgeway ... On His Sixtieth Birthday, 6 August 1913, edited by E. C. Quiggin (Cambridge: at the University Press, 1913), pp. 583-608. [JC 12 6 2008]

For a comprehensive account of kite-fishing, see This Ingenious and Singular Apparatus: Fishing Kites of the Indo-Pacific - Illustrated with Figures of the Things Describ'd, by Gerry Barton and Stefan Dietrich (Norderstedt: Books on Demand, in association with the Völkerkundemuseum vPST, Heidelberg, 2009). [JC 10 10 2019]

Associated publications

Illustrated as a line-drawing as Figure 17 on page 597 of 'Kite-Fishing', by Henry Balfour, in Essays and Studies Presented to William Ridgeway ... On His Sixtieth Birthday, 6 August 1913, edited by E. C. Quiggin (Cambridge: at the University Press, 1913), pp. 583-608. The caption (on page 607) reads: 'Fig. 17. - Fishing-kite of palm-leaf, Santa Anna Island (Owa Raha), San Cristoval, Solomon Islands. Given by the Rev. Codrington, D.D., to the Pitt Rivers Museum, 1903.' In the text accompanying the image (on pages 596), Balfour writes: 'I have no reference to the employment of the fishing-kite in the island of San Cristoval, but in the Pitt Rivers Museum there is a small fishing-kite from the little island of Santa Anna (Owa Raha) lying immediately off the south-east end of San Cristoval. It was collected there by Dr R. H. Codrington (Fig. 17). It is constructed as usual from strips of palm-leaf sewn together, the central strip including its mid-rib which forms the central part or stiffening rod. There are two transverse robs [sic] and at the points where the ends of these meet the margins of the kite, little clips of palm-leaf are added to prevent the margins from tearing.' [JC 12 6 2008] Referred to (with 1920.100.21 and 1920.100.22) on pages 132-133 of This Ingenious and Singular Apparatus: Fishing Kites of the Indo-Pacific - Illustrated with Figures of the Things Describ'd, by Gerry Barton and Stefan Dietrich (Norderstedt: Books on Demand, in association with the Völkerkundemuseum vPST, Heidelberg, 2009). [JC 10 10 2019] Listed as number 111 on page 278 of 'Appendix I: Collection Locations' in This Ingenious and Singular Apparatus: Fishing Kites of the Indo-Pacific - Illustrated with Figures of the Things Describ'd, by Gerry Barton and Stefan Dietrich (Norderstedt: Books on Demand, in association with the Völkerkundemuseum vPST, Heidelberg, 2009). [JC 10 10 2019]

Search terms: Fishing, Fishing Accessory, Kite