IDNO

P.87212.VH

Description

Dufty studio portrait of “Ratu Isikeli, Roko Tui Viwa, Son of Namosimalua.”
Ratu Isikeli Tabakaucoro, the Rokotui Viwa, was indeed a son of Namosimalua or Naqarase, the notorious high chief of Viwa, a small but influential island that lies near Bau, and which like it lies just off the east coast of Vitilevu.
He is dressed in an isuluvakatoga of brown patterned gatu barkcloth, worn in the Tongan style favoured by the high chiefs when not actively engaged, doubled and wrapped high up under his ribs, and secured by a white barkcloth ioro waistband. Leaning against his chair is an iirimasei fan, borne by chiefs and priests as a symbol of rank and as a sunshade, and made from a single leaf of the niumasei or fan-palm, Pritchardia pacifica.
1870s. See P.87348.VH for a more frontal view of Ratu Isikeli. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka; Viwa; Vitilevu; Mt Tova; Nakorotubu; Nabukadra

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Ratu Isikeli Tabakaucoro

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka (Dufty, Francis Herbert)

Collector / Expedition

?von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1875 - 1876

Collection Name

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87203 to P.87221 were in the Museum’s paper archive envelope, OA2/5/12, which has now been re-numbered C511/.

Publication: A similar print of this man is published in ‘The Fiji Journals of Baron Anatole Von Hugel 1875 - 1877’, edited by Jane Roth and Steven Hooper (1990), plate 43d, p.331, and captioned “Ratu Isikeli Tabakaucoro, of Nabukadra, (Nakorotubu), c. 1875-80”. [Alex Nadin, 30/9/2003]

Photographer: The use of this specific iirimasei fan, with an edging of a double roll and triangular cut? leaves, as a studio prop (see P.87396.VH for full detail of three of the iirimasei used), along with the wooden chair, are recognisable as used by Duftys’ Studio, Levuka, circa 1875 - 1876. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 26/3/2012]

Related Image: This commercial photograph appears more than once in the MAA Collections. There is no original negative. [JD 28/11/2011]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Program One. [Alex Nadin, 30/9/2003]