Loan (Exhibition)
Exhibited in Polynésie, Arts et divinités 1760-1860, Le musée du quai Branly, Paris, 17 June 2008- 14 September 2008
Event Date
Author: maa

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Loan (Exhibition)
Cook voyages exhibition
Event Date
Author: maa

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Loan (Exhibition)
Exhibition 'Pacific Divinities: Gods, Chiefs and Priests in Polynesia 1760-1850', March 2006-May 2006.
Event Date
Author: maa

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Description (CMS Description)
Catalogue card 1 for D 1914.34 notes 'Wood carving representing a pair of conventionalised human figures and a quadruped (portion of a ceremonial object).'

Catalogue card 2 for D 1914.34 notes 'a wood carving representing a pair of conventionalised human figures and a quadruped (portion of a ceremonial object).'

Catalogue card 3 for Z 6079 notes 'Wooden carving'

Additional description [no date]: 'Double-sided carving of two squat figures standing side by side and holding hands. The figures have triangular-shaped heads and open mouths. One of the figures on either side is joined to a quadruped at the end of the carving by an outstretched arm. A short platform juts out from the other end of the carving. The quadruped has an upturned tail and pointed ears, one of which is broken. The base of the carving is decorated with vertical ridges and grooves in a faintly zigzag pattern.'


Event Date 1/6/1996
Author: maa

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Context (CMS Context)
Note on catalogue card 1 listed as '?Hervey Is' and '(As this is Cook Colln, ex T. Coll; it probably comes from 1st voyage suggesting that it was obtained in Tahiti in 1769. But the precise history of the T.C. Colln has not been checked properly yet. [signed] P.G [Peter Gathercole] 21.9.71)."

Note on catalogue card 2: "D 1914.34 (= Z. 6079)/ ?Cook Islands/ .... Cook Collection (First Voyage, 1768-71), received from Trinity College, Cambridge, on deposit, 1914. This collection was given to Trinity College by the Earl of Sandwich in 1771. This suggests that this object was actually obtained in 1769 in Tahiti, not in Cook Islands. But note that precise history of this collection has not yet been established. [Card written by ?P. Gathercole]'

Note on catalogue card 3 for Z 6079 give the provenance as Harvey Islands with a later annotation of 'See Australs'.

Literature: See 'Artificial Curiosities' (1978), A. Kaeppler, p.159, and Figure 293, p.160. Evidence: Sandwich collection. Given by Cook. First voyage. Kaeppler (1978) describes this object as1914.35, however according to the UCMAA catalogue cards it is 1914.34. (J.Tanner, July 1998). See 'From Pacific Shores: Eighteenth-century Ethnographic Collections at Cambridge - The Voyages of Cook, Vancouver and the First Fleet' (J. Tanner, 1999:46).

Exhibition History: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1935 and returned by 1952.
National Gallery, Washington, 1979.
Centenary Exhibition, "The Proper Study of Mankind", Fitzwilliam Museum, 1984. Maudslay Gallery from 1990.

Cook Collection: Captain James Cook undertook three world voyages around the globe from 1768 - 1779. The stated purpose of the first voyage (1768-1771) on the HMS Endeavour was to send a Royal Society team to observe the transit of the planet Venus from the vantage point of newly discovered Tahiti. However, the primary governmental motivation behind the first expedition was to establish the existence of ' Terra Australis Incognita' or the ' Great Southern Continent' , which was believed to exist in order to balance the great northern land mass. Cook set sail from Plymouth on Friday 26th August 1768 and headed to South America, round Cape Horn and westwards to carry out the experiment in Tahiti, and then went on to circumnavigate the globe in pursuit of the presumed continent. The purpose of the second voyage (1772-1775) on the HMS Resolution and the HMS Adventure was to extend the search for the ' southern continent' . They sailed from Plymouth on 27 June 1772 and headed directly south past Cape Town and then set out on an eastward course of circumnavigation, crossing the Antartic Circle several times en route in an effort to seek the imagined continent. The third voyage (1776-1780) on the HMS Resolution and the HMS Discovery, was concerned with the search for a Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They sailed from Plymouth on 13th July 1772, heading first for the Society Islands from whence they set course to search for the Northwest Passage. However, Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779 and his command was taken up by Charles Clerke.

More than 2000 extant pieces can be traced from Cook' s voyages (Kaeppler:1978), of which UCMAA has 215 identified objects.
The majority of the material at UCMAA was collected from the Pacific, but also includes objects from the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, the Northeast Coast of Asia and Tierra del Fuego in South America. Furthermore, all the three voyages are represented by objects in UCMAA' s collection. (J. Tanner, 1999).

Kaeppler (1978) p.159 states, 'The use of the carving is unknown. It is listed as "an ornamental carving" and identified by a label as from Oheteroa. I suspect that this is a carving from the stern piece of a canoe such as that depicted in the British Library Add.Ms.15,513.26 (Fig.294) and Add.Ms.15,513.20 (Fig.295)'.

On the matter of provenance, Kaeppler lists this piece as from the Austral Islands. (J. Tanner, July 1998) Kaeppler (1978) p.159 states, 'The use of the carving is unknown. It is listed as "an ornamental carving" and identified by a label as from Oheteroa. I suspect that this is a carving from the stern piece of a canoe such as that depicted in the British Library Add.Ms.15,513.26 (Fig.294) and Add.Ms.15,513.20 (Fig.295)'.

Event Date 1/6/1996
Author: maa

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Context (CMS Context)
On loan to and exhibited: 'Polynésie: Arts et Divinités 1760-1860 Musée du quai Branly, Paris (17 June 2009 - 14 September 2008)
Event Date 28/1/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

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Context (CMS Context)
On loan to the Sainsbury Research Centre for Visual Arts for the 'Pacific Encounters' Exhibition, May 2006 - August 2006. (F. Veys, 25/4/2006).
Event Date 28/1/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

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Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: On display in the Introductory section to the Museum, Early Cambridge Anthropology, Maudslay Hall, 1990-2011.
Event Date 28/1/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

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Context (CMS Context)
On loan & exhibited: On display in "James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific" in Bonn, (28 August 2009 - 28 February 2010), Vienna (10 May - 13 September 2010), and Bern (7 October 2010 - 13 February 2011
Event Date 28/1/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

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Context (References)
Nicholas Thomas, Trisha Biers, Lauren Cadwallader, Maia Nuku and Amiria Salmond (2017) The provenance, date and significance of a Cook-voyage Polynesian sculpture (Cambridge University Press Online)

'There has been no certainty or consensus concerning what it is or where it is from. Stylistic features prompted Kenneth Emory and H.D. Skinner to associate it with the Austral Islands, a view shared by Adrienne Kaeppler, author of studies of foundational importance relating to the Cook-voyage ethnographic collections (Kaeppler 1978, Kaeppler 2011; Kaeppler and Fleck 2009). .... Kaeppler (1978: 159) claims that a museum label identified the work as from ‘Oheteroa’ (the name given to Rurutu in the first-voyage journals and records), but this appears to be an error: no such label is now known to exist and the earliest records—the delivery note and the Trinity Librarian's inventory—both state that the carving was from Tahiti.

It is unlikely that the carving was obtained in the Austral Islands during the brief encounter between the Endeavour and a few men in canoes off Rurutu that took place over 14–15 August 1769 (Beaglehole1955: 155–56)...

The oxygen isotope values for the comparative islands show Rurutu as having the lowest range in δ18Ocellulose at 26.5–27.6‰. Tahiti falls in a middle range, with mean δ18Ocellulose values of 28.3–30.0‰. New Zealand has the highest range of oxygen isotope cellulose values at 31.3–33.6‰.

... If the sculpture is Tahitian, and was collected on that island, it was acquired during the Endeavour’s visit between mid April and mid July 1769. ... Caroline Cartwright (pers. comm., Wood Anatomist, Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum) has identified the wood as Ficus sp. This is consistent with the Tahitian provenance, although without a firm species identification, conclusions drawn from the isotopic data must remain cautious, as there is isotopic variation amongst tree species in the same climatic region.'
Event Date 2017
Author: rachel hand

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Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2018.4144 | Assessment Only
Event Date 29/6/2018
Author: Christina Rozeik

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Loan (Exhibition)
Royal Academy of Arts, 14/09/2018 to 09/12/2018, Oceania
Event Date 14/9/2018
Author: Rachel Hand

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Loan (Exhibition)
Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris , 11/03/2019 to 07/07/2019, Oceanie
Event Date 11/3/2019
Author: rachel hand

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Context (Amendments / updates)
Discussions with Shane Wilson, the Collections Manager at Te Papa Museum and carver during the installation of Oceania in Paris revolved around the carving. Shane suggested that it was used as a lintel to a gateway as both sides are clearly intended to be viewed. The quadruped, suggested previously as a dog or a pig, is most likely to be a dog. This is due to the long snout and legs, the pointed ears and the tail which would originally have curved around to be in contact with the animal's back.
Event Date 24/4/2019
Author: rachel hand

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Loan (Long Term Gallery Loan)
Musée de Tahiti et de ses îles, 01/01/2021 to 01/01/2023, Exhibition- title tbc
Event Date 1/1/2021
Author: rachel hand

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Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2022.5425 | Assessment Only
Event Date 9/8/2022
Author: Kirstie French

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Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2025.6266 | Assessment Only
Event Date 28/8/2025
Author: Stephanie De Roemer