IDNO

P.87234.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty carte de visite studio photograph featuring a young Christian chief in ceremonial or dance dress, with a tuft of striped pandanus leaf streamers in his oiled hair, a batinivuaka boar tusk pendant at his throat, an iwabale shoulder sash of fringed white barkcloth, and wearing a malo loincloth with a bulky waistband and maloyara train, and a black sausauwai or waloa kilt. In his hand is an iulatavatava throwing club. Levuka,
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1875 - 1876

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Carte-de-visite; Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87222.VH to P.87277.VH were found loose in the Museum’s paper archive envelope, VH1/4/7, which has now been re-numbered C512/.

Photographer: Dufty’s Levuka studio is recognisable through the painted studio backdrop to represent a view out a window with shutters (note the knob added to the shutter that casts a shadow). This appears to be a feature of Dufty’s studio throughout the 1870s, although the idealised landscape ‘view’ changes around 1875-1876. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 20/3/2012]

Publication: A duplicate carte-de-visit is held at the State Library of Victoria, reference H2005.34/1088, with the following information:
Title: [Studio portraits of Fijians by F. & A. Dufty, Fiji] [picture] / F. & A. Dufty.
Author/Creator: Dufty, F. & A.
Date(s): [ca. 1868-ca. 1885]
Description: 8 photographic prints on carte de visite mounts : albumen silver ; 11 x 7 cm.
Copyright status: This work is out of copyright.
Index terms: Australia; Francis and Alfred Dufty; studio portraits; Fiji; Fijians
Notes: Title assigned by cataloguer.
Dufty Bros. operated from Fiji between 1870's and 1880's. Ref.: Australians behind the camera, directory of early Australian photographers, 1841-1945 / Sandy Barrie, 2002.
Photographer printed on verso of H2005.34/1085-87, 1089: F. & A. Dufty / Photographers / Levuka / Fiji.
Photographer printed on verso of H2005.34/1085-88, 1090-92: F. & A. Dufty / Photographers / Levuka and Suva / Fiji.
Contents/Summary: Man, sitting, almost whole-length, full face, wearing Fijian native costume, holding something in his right hand.
Source/Donor: Gift of Mr John Etkins; 2005.
[Source: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au, JD 12/3/2012]

Exhibition: This carte de visit was one of seven loaned to Yale Centre for British Arts and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, for the exhibition and publication ‘Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science & the Visual Arts’, February - October 2009. [JD 12/4/2010]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Program One. [A. Nadin, 2/7/2003]