Context (Amendments / updates)
In Haddon and Layard’s report (1916: 12-13) the object E 1914.231.51 (BBW 1914.231.200) is described and sketched (Fig. 4) as object ‘B’ of seven ‘chert implements’. Six of the depicted cherts are registered as 1925.471 A, C-G. This suggests that the six cherts were separated from E 1914.231.51 at some point following Haddon and Layard’s report, possibly as part of the objects that were returned to Wollaston and subsequently given back to the museum in 1925.
K. Haslwanter and E.C. Blake (Pacific Presences Project) 2015.8.14’
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Physical description)
[From catalogue card 1914.231.51/Record 1:] 'Chert flakes used for carving arrows. / Collected by donor in 1910 on Upper Waters of Mimika River from Pygmy Tapiru.'
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Physical description)
[From catalogue card 1925.471 A, C-G/Record 2:] ‘Six chert implements.'

Event Date 1/10/1998
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Amendments / updates)
The numbering sequence of this material is unclear, but it appears that part of the collection was listed by A.C. Haddon & J.W. Layard in their “Report on the Ethnographical Collections from the Utakwa river made by A.F.R. Wollaston” after its arrival in the museum. Some items were not accessioned but were returned to Wollaston, (see OA2/12/3 ‘List of articles ret. to him [Wollaston]’, stamped 25 March 1914).
The remaining items appear to have been listed as a collection in the Blue Book (1914.231), as the number of items is now 187, which is less than the 257 noted by Haddon & Layard. The ‘Accessions List’ noted in the Blue Book cannot yet be located. The items were then listed in unnumbered groups in preparation for the Annual Report (See OA2/12/3 ‘Combined list (rough) used for compiling the list of Wollaston Collection (Utakwa River, D.N. Guinea, for 1914 List in Annual Report’). Only then does the Accessions Register seems to have been compiled, by sticking in a copy of the Annual Report to the Register.
Each object in the Wollaston collection has four numbers assigned to it. These are viz:
- Accession register numbers: E 1914.231.1-187 (These correspond to the Blue Book numbers which seem to have been the first assigned numbers of the collection: BB 1914.231.1-187)
- Annual report numbers: AR 1914.371.1-187
- Wollaston field collection numbers: 1- 257 (Haddon & Layard)

The so-called Haddon & Layard numbers (H&L) , according to Karen Jacobs (2004: 2) are based on the original object numbers given by Wollaston in the field. Most of the objects in the MAA Wollaston collection have a number (written directly onto the object or on labels which are adhered to the objects) which are a combination of the Blue Book/Accession number (1914.231) with the running suffix from Wollaston field collection numbers, (1-257), which were also used in Haddon & Layard’s report. These numbers are now prefixed on the database as BBW (Blue Book with Wollaston suffix, e.g., e.g. 1914.231.1- 257) to differentiate them from the accession numbers.

(See Wollaston object labels in OA2/12/2.) These are pre-printed British Museum labels with handwritten annotations to which are adhered small green square labels with printed numbers. These are Wollaston’s field numbers and some of these two labels types are also found on MAA objects. Any missing objects from the number sequences of the Haddon and Layard numbers are probably those items which were returned to Wollaston.

It seems that some of these objects came back to the museum as the 1924 and 1925 collections (for example, the ‘Roll of tobacco coiled round a short stick’ shown as No 18 on Plate II of Haddon & Layard (1916: 10, 80 and 81), with the Wollaston field collection number ‘222’, reappears in the museum records as 1925.469).

Further information on the Wollaston collection can be found in:
Report on the Ethnographic Collection from the Utakwa river made by A.F.R. Wollaston. by A.C. Haddon and J. W. Layard, with a Note by A. von Hugel." The Report was printed as part of the British Ornithologists' Union, ‘Report on the Collections made by the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea 1910- 13’, 2 vols. Francis Edwards, London, 1916, Vol. II, part 19.

Jacobs, Karen. 2004. Report: analysis of the collection assembled by A.F.R. Wollaston in Dutch New Guinea (1910- 13). Unpublished Crowther Beynon report on the MAA Wollaston Collection.

Katharina Haslwanter, (Pacific Presences Project) 2015.8.14
Event Date 14/8/2015
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Amendments / updates)
There are two records with the number 1925.471. One record (1925.471 A, C-G/Record 2 (‘6 chert implements’)) matches the description give in Haddon and Layard (1916: 12-13) and they are said to have come from the Utakwa River area. The second record (1925.471/Record 1) mentions ‘pieces of worked flints used as scrapers and knives’, which according to the catalogue card and Accession Register were collected in 1910 in the Tapiro area. Haddon and Layard write in their Report (1916:12) that these ‘[r]oughly chipped pieces of chert have been found among the Utakwa only’. In the corrigenda on page vi however, it is corrected, stating that 'The chert implements came from the Tapiro and not from the Utakwa natives as stated.  Dr. Wollaston did not see any other tribes using them.' Please note that there are also ’[t]hree worked flints used by the Tapiro pygmies’ (1924.1172. A-C) in the 1924 Wollaston collection.

K. Haslwanter and E.C. Blake (Pacific Presences Project) 2015.8.14 and K. Haslwanter 4/5/2017’
Event Date 14/8/2015
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Physical description)
[From Haddon and Layard (1916; 12-13):] ‘Chert implements. —Roughly chipped pieces of chert have been found among the Utakwa only, and are used for sharpening and carving arrows, etc.; of these we have examined the seven specimens shown in fig. 4.’
'Fig. 4, a. Thick irregular concave-convex falk, the concave side is shown, the other consists of smooth surfaces...c. Flake with a well-marked bulb. d. Flake with bruised, fractured surface and portion of the original crust; rough transverse flamingo the opposite side. f. Course flake with part of the original crust at one end; smooth on the under surface. g. Under surface of a thick flake, the other side is roughly chipped and battered.’
Event Date 14/8/2015
Author: Katrina Dring