Context (Display)
Previously exhibited' [undated note in record and unclear if this refers to A and B]
Event Date
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card for 1927.2181 A-B notes 'Two small human faces-blue-with red median line. 3 rays (two lateral, one vertical). These are attached to ceremonial bows.'
Event Date 1927
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
B: Fibre tufts at end of the rays are fragile and shedding. The pigments forming the face are fragile and cracking. Object should be handled as little at possible.
Event Date 13/5/2010
Author: maa

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2022.5323 | Remedial
Event Date 18/5/2022
Author: Kirstie French (admin)

Context (Display)
Exhibited in the Case 19 (Reckitt's Blue), Colour: Art, Science & Power, Li Ka Shing Gallery, MAA. 26 July 2022- 23 April 2023.
The text notes 'Reckitt's Blue
In 1828 French chemist Jean-Baptiste Guimet discovered a means of preparing synthetic lazurite by heating together china clay, soda, charcoal, quartz and sulphur. The new pigment became known as French ultramarine. It was a fraction of the cost of the original. By the 1870s French ultramarine was the standard, despite artists complaining that it lacked the depth of blue derived from lapis lazuli.

Synthetic ultramarine was later used as an ingredient in laundry soap, to enhance the optical properties of white. A tiny amount of blue offsets the yellowing that occurs from repeated washing and makes white fabric look brighter. Laundry blue, marketed as Reckitt's Blue in England, was taken to the colonies where European notions of 'cleanliness' and domestic service were imposed on local populations.

The soap powder was subverted and transformed. The highly desired ultramarine colour produced by Reckitt's Blue was used by Indigenous artists across Africa, the Americas and the Pacific to decorate a wide variety of special items'
Event Date 22/6/2023
Author: rachel hand