IDNO

P.87270.VH

Description

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

A Dufty studio portrait of a bare-breasted woman with heavily oiled hair embellished with a plume and decorative comb studded and strung with trade beads, brass? earrings, and a beaded necklace with what looks like a small whaletooth replica of a cowrie shell at the throat. A darkly smoked, fringed barkcloth waist sash is worn over a striped pandanus leaf liku overskirt, itself worn over a barkcloth wrap-around skirt. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Sili

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka (Dufty, Francis Herbert)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1875 - 1876

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Photomechanical Print

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/.

Related Image: A set of the same or similar woodburytype from Dufty portraits are in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, some of which are named, see reference 1998.237 [E. Edwards]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Program One.