Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1933.38.8

Solid wooden bowl with four legs. Small lug on underside with perforation. [RM [OPS move] 8/9/2016]

1933.38.8

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Solid wooden bowl with four legs. Small lug on underside with perforation. [RM [OPS move] 8/9/2016]
Long description
Solid wooden bowl with four legs. The bowl appears to have been broken in half and glued together again. [El.B 17/10/2011]
Geographical reference
Fiji
Oceania > Melanesia > Fiji
Person
Field collector Samuel Ward Payne
Field collector HMS Curaçoa
PRM source Julius Delmege Payne
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1865
Date collected
July 26 - August 3 1865
Acquisition information
Donated: 1933
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Perforated
Dimensions
Diameter: max 270 mm, Height: max 85 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1933.38.8
Research and responses

Examined on the 12th/13th June by Fergus Clunie and Andy Mills as part of the work of the AHRC-funded project 'Fijian Art: Political Power, Sacred Value, Social Transformation and Collecting Since the 18th Century' (2011-2014). His notes read: Tanoa - small and early tanoa. Very heavy smoke patination to underside. [FB 18/06/2012]

NB Although named after the island of Curaçao, the name of the ship during the voyage of which this object was collected was HMS Curaçoa. [JC 1 2 2013]

Associated publications
For an account of kava bowls from Western Polynesia, including references to examples in the PRM collections, see 'Kava Bowls from Western Polynesia: A Comparative Study of Bowls from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga' by Valentin Boissonnas (Norwich: University of East Anglia (Sainsbury Research Unit), MA dissertation, 2012). (Copy in RDF: Researchers: Boissonnas.) This object is referred to (with 1933.38.6 and 1933.38.7) on page 16. Boissonnas writes: 'Three other yaqona bowls were said to have been given by Cakobau to Rev. Payne, the chaplain of the Curaçoa, which are now in the Pitt-Rivers [sic] collections.' The bowl is listed under 'Cakobau' in 'Table 2. A list of collectors that were identified to have contributed more than one bowl to the collections of the BM, UCMAA and the PRM. Ibūbūrau dishes are not included in this list' on page 51. [JC 29 6 2013; JC 3 7 2013]

Search terms: Vessel, Ritual and Ceremonial, Narcotic, Bowl, Kava Accessory

Further items to explore