1896.71.4.2

Collection type

Object

Description

Part of a model reindeer pack. For the other parts of the pack see 1896.71.4.1 and 1896.71.4.3.

Long description

Reindeer pack made of wood, leather and string. The pack sits on the back of a model reindeer (see 2003.33.1) and constitutes two parts - one on either side of the model reindeer. The part sitting on the left side of the model reindeer has a round storage container with a handle inside a circular frame. The part on the right side of the reindeer model has a barrel container within a rectangular frame with rounded corners. Both packs have string tied over the top to secure their respective storage containers, thin sticks of wood in a grid to form the base of the pack and cloth backing, probably hessian. The pack has three leather straps which secure underneath the reindeer model. Both parts of the pack are connected by pieces of wood secured above the reindeer back with string.

Geographical reference

Sweden

Europe > Northern Europe > Sweden

Norway

Europe > Northern Europe > Norway

Finland

Europe > Northern Europe > Finland

Russia

Europe > Eastern Europe > Russia

Cultural groups

Saami

Person

Maker Lars Haetta

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Alfred Leonard Matsson

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1896

Date collected

By 1896

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1896

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material String, Material Animal Leather Skin, Material Metal, Process Carved, Process Tied, Material Plant Fibre Textile

Dimensions

Diameter 63 mm Circular part, Height 100 mm Measured part sitting on model reindeer, Height 35 mm Circular part, Length 85 mm Rectangular part with cylindrical container, Width 60 mm Rectangular part with cylindrical container, Height 30 mm Rectangular part with cylindrical container, Width 135 mm Measured part sitting on model reindeer

Object numbers

Accession number: 1896.71.4.2

Research and responses

Barbara Sjoholm is the author of "From Lapland to Sápmi: Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture". Sjoholm's research has shown that whilst imprisoned Hætta made two sets of Sámi models, probably 160 in all, as educational tools for professors J.A. Friis and Ludwig Daa. Daa gave a number of the models to Robert Latham, ostensibly for the Crystal Palace Museum exhibits. Latham gave Daa objects in exchange for the new Ethnographic Museum in Oslo. Silje Mathisen Opdahl’s “A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham,” (2019) provided details about Ludwig Daa’s connection with Robert Latham and the Crystal Palace Exhibition, as well as the early years of the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo. Sjoholm's research also used a history in Norwegian of the University of Oslo’s Ethnographic Museum by director Yngvar Nielsen: Universitetets ethnografiske Samlinger 1857–1907, (1907) where he discusses Ludwig Daa’s travels to England and the Continent in order buy and trade exotic objects. On pages 35-36 he discusses then-director of the museum Ludwig Daa’s visit to England in 1864. With him Daa carried Sámi objects to exchange for ethnographic artefacts from around the world. In London he made the acquaintance of “Mr. Wareham” who dealt in curiosities and did business with him. A William Wareham is listed as a possible dealer who dealt with Pitt Rivers: https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/article-index/12-articles/139-dealers-and-auctioneers.html. He is another way that the Sámi models made by Hætta could have become part of the Pitt Rivers Museum collection, rather than coming through Robert Latham and the Crystal Palace exhibit.

Anne May Olli (director of RiddoDuottarMuseat), Johan Ashlak (Ailo) Hætta (head of the museum's branch in Kautokeino), and Anna Mossolova (MSCA postdoctoral fellow at Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo) digitally reviewed some objects in the Pitt Rivers collection which may have been made by Lars Hætta during the time he was imprisoned in Oslo (1856–1867) for participation in the Kautokeino rebellion. Anne May and Ailo looked at this model reindeer with pack online and had doubts that it was all made by Hætta. The reindeer head itself was made by Henry Balfour in 1898, presumably to display the pack which is most probably Hætta's work. Hætta objects are usually very distinctive thanks to the handwritten labels in Sámi and Norwegian made by Hætta himself. He had very beautiful handwriting and it looks like it is his handwriting on the storage containers around the reindeer. Anna wondered if this model could therefore be some sort of bricolage. Anna also confirmed that the reindeer pack is called beassegiisá in Sámi.

Search terms: Model, Animal Gear, Transport and Travel