Description (Physical description)
Carved wooden model canoe breakwater; rectangular lower section with two opposing semicircular projections above, one smaller than the other. Carved in low relief on one side with spiral designs in each projection; incised triangles along top border and in vertical bands running lengthwise. Traces of white pigment along one vertical band. Reverse unstained with two deep linear incisions down each side of rectangular section.
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Description (Labels & Markings)
Expedition inscription on reverse of object reads: [Handwritten in pencil by Charles Seligman and partially obscured by museum label:] '34 ...iawata'.

Museum label adhered to reverse of object reads: [Handwritten in black ink:] 'Model canoe prow. Kwaiawata. N.G. Major W. Cooke Daniels. 1905.258(3).'
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (References)
Model of a 'rajim' canoe prow carving. Newton ‘Massim: Art of the Massim Area, New Guinea’ (1975:8-9) notes that type 2 carvings, which this model represents, are 'found throughout the Massim area, except in the East Cape and the d'Entrecasteaux.'
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (Other)
Catalogue card 1 reads: [Handwritten in black ink:] 'E.1905.258, (1). MELANESIA. NEW GUINEA. Iwa. Model of canoe prow. ['-Iwa' added in black ball point] Donor [underlined]. Major W. Cooke Daniels. R.1906 ['5' crossed out in black ball point and replaced with '6']. 888.'; [later addition handwritten in black ball point:] '(2) " [model of a canoe prow] - Kwaiawata (3) " [model of a canoe prow] - Kwaiawata (4) " [model of a canoe prow] ?Kwaiawata. Collected by Cooke-Daniels Ethnographical Expedition 1903'; [later addition handwritten in blue ball point:] 'Marshall Bennetts'. [Red circular sticker top right of card.]
Catalogue card 2 reads: [Handwritten in black ink:] 'E.1905.258, (3) MELANESIA. NEW GUINEA. Kwaiwata [sic] I. Model of Canoe prow. Donor [underlined]. Major W. Cooke Daniels. R.1906 ['5' crossed out in black ball point and replaced with '6']. 890.'; [later addition handwritten in black ball point:] 'carved and decorated with red and white paint. Collected by Cooke-Daniels Ethnographical Expedition 1903'.; [later addition handwritten in black ball point - different hand to above:] 'MARSHALL BENNETTS. MASSIM'. ['5' written in top right of card in blue ball point.]
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (Field collection)
Collected during the Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea, led by Major William Cooke Daniels and Dr. Charles Seligman, accompanied by Dr. Walter Mersh Strong and Mr A.H. Dunning, 1903-1904.

Cooke Daniels visited Kwaiawata Island between 27 and 29 August 1904 returning, along with Seligman and Dunning, between 30 and 31 August 1904.
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (Other owners)
Appears as item 34 on Seligman's catalogue of objects donated to the museum on behalf of William Cooke Daniels, see MAA Archive OA2/12/9: 'Prow Ornaments from model canoes, Kwaiawata.' Following the expedition, Seligman catalogued and donated the collections on the understanding they were a gift from Cooke Daniels, the expedition's primary funder.
Event Date 11/4/2017
Author: Heather Donoghue