Context (Display)
Label found with objects reads: 'Feather shirt & hat Perishables survive in the graves in the dry climate. dd. Colchester & Essex Museum.' (transcribed by M. Backhouse, 10/11/2004)
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Acquisition Details)
Catalogue card reads: 'Label says, 'From an entombed mummy, Trujillo'. Chimu Culture. Given to Colchester Museum, 1931, by A. E. Macandrew and transferred to CMAE by the Museum, 1947.'

Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (Display)
Exhibited: Exhibition of Indigenous American Art, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1920, on cases N, O and P, No. 2
Event Date 1920
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Burlington Fine Arts Club. (1920). Catalogue of an Exhibition of Objects of Indigenous American Art. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club. p. 76
Event Date 1920
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card: 'Feather headdress of white, brown, red and green feathers.'
Event Date 1947
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (References)
Bushnell, G. (1956). Peru. London: Thames and Hudson. Plate 57. p, 112.
Event Date 1956
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (References)
Lothrop, S.K. (1964). Treasures of Ancient America: The Arts of the pre-Columbian Civilizations from Mexico to Peru. Geneva: Skira. p. 187 (pictured)
Event Date 1964
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (Display)
Exhibited: Maudslay Gallery Chimu Case until 1985.
Event Date 1985
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Moseley, Michael. (1992). The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. London: Thames and Hudson. Plate 10.
Event Date 1992
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (Analysis)
Dr Andrew Turner, curator for World Archaeology, examined this object in 2019 and provided the following details: 'This headdress and tunic are labelled as Chimú and they could be, but preserved featherwork for the Chimú culture is rare. Textiles, featherwork, and other fragile organic materials tend not to survive as well with the high saltpetre content of soils of the Peruvian north coast, but there are of course exceptions. Well-preserved featherwork tunics and other objects are far more commonly found from the Ica culture, contemporaneous with the Chimú, but from Peru’s south coast. The geometricized fish design that appears in positive and negative on the tunic is also common in Ica art, but also appears in Chimú and Chancay art (also contemporaneous, but from the central coast of Peru). As many of Macandrew’s objects are labelled as being from Trujillo, Peru, it would be useful to know if he had bought them from a local looter or from a gallery that might have sold objects from farther afield'.
Event Date 8/2019
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Physical description)
Feather headdress with inverted cone crest and rectangular tail. Circular cap with bands of white, brown and orange feathers; on top of the cap are multicoloured green feathers with an inverted cone of white and blue feathers; the tail hangs down the back with a white motif, possibly a bird or fish, upon a black background and stripes of white and multicoloured green; a long flap of feathers hangs either side of the cap; feathers attached to a woven cotton base with lengths hanging beside the flaps.
Event Date 21/10/2022
Author: Katrina Dring