IDNO

P.87237.VH

Description

“Fiji, 1/2 caste”. [von Hügel’s? annotation]

An F.H Dufty carte-de-visite studio photograph of a wavy-haired, teenaged girl of part European and part Fijian parentage. She is dressed in the respectable Fijian fashion of the day, with an artificial flower in her hair, an off-the-shoulder, short-sleeved vinivoa (“pinafore”) bodice, and unusually patterned barkcloth isulu wrap-around skirt, secured by a fringed white barkcloth waist sash. She also wears a pair of pendant ear drops and a locket on a chain. Against her chair leans an iirimasei fan, made from a single leaf of the niumasei or fan-palm, Pritchardia pacifica.
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: The use of this specific iirimasei fan, with an edging of a double roll and triangular cut? leaves, as a studio prop, 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 print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 22/12/2011]

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