IDNO

P.87299.VH

Description

Portrait of “Ratu Seru Cakobau,Vunivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, at about the time he and a group of other powerful chiefs ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874.” The portrait has been masked in an oval vignette. [www.justpacific.com, AN 2/7/2003]

F.H. Dufty Studio portrait of Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau, Circa 1874. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Three-quarter length studio portrait of Ratu Seru Cakobau, the then Vunivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, wearing a large red-brown Tongan ngatu (barkcloth) with a white barkcloth i-oro (cummerbund) over a European style striped shirt. He holds a chiefly symbol of a iri (fan), which is vakavuti (feather-trimmed).
The image has been cropped to a head and shoulders portrait and masked in an oval frame. [JD 26/3/2008, from record P.103564.VH, updated JD 15/12/2011]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti (formerly spelt as Thakombau)

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1874

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Photomechanical Print

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87297.VH to P.87320.VH were wrapped in the piece of paper now numbered C512/3/. This envelope came from the Museum’s paper archive envelope VH1/4/7, which has now been re-numbered C512/.

Publication: A copy of this print is published in ‘The Fiji Journals of Baron Anatole Von Hugel 1875 - 1877’, edited by Jane Roth and Steven Hooper (1990), plate 4, page xxviii, captioned:
“Ratu Apenisa Seru Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau, c. 1874-5.” [AN 2/7/2003]

Publication: Duplicates of this photograph are on the websites ‘www.pictureaustralia.org’, ‘www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/’ and ‘www.justpacific.com’ in the section concerning the photographs of the Dufty Brothers and captioned “Ratu Seru Cakobau,Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, at about the time he and a group of other powerful chiefs ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874.” [AN 2/7/2003]

Publication: The fourth image is published on National Library of Australia website, reference nla.pic-an10975065-3, with the following information:
Creator: Dufty, Francis H., 1846-1910.
Title: Cakobau, died February 1883 [picture] / F.H. Dufty.
Date: between 1870 and 1879.
Extent: 1 photograph : carte de visite ; 8.6 x 5.5 cm., on mount 61 x 116.4 cm.
Context: Part of Dufty, Francis H., 1846-1910. Panorama of Levuka, Fiji, and portraits [picture]
Series: Panorama of Levuka, Fiji, and portraits.
Notes: Mounted with a montage of 5 albumen prints forming a panorama, and 11 other carte-de-visite portraits of Fijian and Tongan Chiefs and people.
[Source: www.nla.gov.au, JD 9/3/2012]

Photographer: Dufty’s Levuka studio is recognisable in the uncropped duplicate image, P.87217., through the use of the sideboard with a plainer and paler base (see P.87333.VH for same? sideboard with darker decorative scroll work and leaves? added to it). The sideboard is normally positioned to the left of the studio, so its position in this image is unusual. This configuration of studio props appears to be used by Dufty between circa 1874 - 1875. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 13/3/2012]

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