IDNO

P.87324.VH

Description

Portrait of Ratu Apenisa Seru Cakobau in an oval vignette.

Studio portrait of Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau and Tui Viti, 1876-1877. [Fergus Clunie, 26/9/2003]

Head and shoulders portrait of Ratu Seru Cakobau, the then Vunivalu of Bau and Tui Viti.
The image has been cropped and masked from a full length seated portrait where Cakobau wears a large barkcloth skirt, from the size and design possibly a solofua (normally a bedcover or blanket) from Lau. He rests his hands on his matakilagi (chief's staff). The chair is covered with a second piece of barkcloth with a fringe, and a woven mat is used as the floor. Additional mats have been hung in the background to create a temporary studio. [JD 26/3/2008, from record P.103551.VH, JD 19/12/2011]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; ?Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

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

Photographer

Stewart (Colonel, R.E.)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1876 - 1877

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Photomechanical Print

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87321.VH to P.87342.VH were in the envelope now numbered C512/4/. This envelope came from the Museum’s paper archive envelope VH1/4/7, which has now been re-numbered C512/.

Biographical Information: ‘Thakombau, ex-king of Fiji’, also known as Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vuniivalu of Bau, Tui Viti, chief of Fiji 1871 - 1874, b.1817 d.1883, accepted Christianaity 1854 and ended cannibalism, instrumental in ceding Fiji to Britain in 1874] [Source: University of Southern California, Mission Photography Archive, http://digarc.usc.edu/impa/controller/view/impa-m2531.html, JD 26/3/2008]

Publication: The same image was published in Brewster, A.B., 1937, "King of the Cannibal Isles" (London, Robert Hale & Company) with the following information:
"King Thakombau, 1876, and Autograph" Frontispiece.
Photo by late Colonel Stewart, R.E.
Addition information provided by Just Pacific reads:
“Cakobau is wearing a large barkcloth skirt, apparently from the size and design a solofua (normally a bedcover or blanket) from Lau. He rests his hands on his chief's staff or matakilagi. The autograph is "CakobauR" [Cakobau Rex], the title he adopted during the Viti Government of 1871-4. Some European settlers had first crowned him King of Bau in May 1867, but even they never recognised his sovereign power over themselves. Then in June 1871 he was proclaimed King of Fiji, this time by a small group of European associates, and over the protests of many of the European population. Though he finally achieved fairly wide acceptance of this status, his government was not a success and by September 1874, Cakobau was pleased to agree to cede Fiji to Britain. As he put it then, "If matters remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece of driftwood on the sea, and be picked up by the first passer-by. The whites who have come to Fiji are a bad lot. They are mere stalkers on the beach. … Of one thing I am assured, that if we do not cede Fiji, the white stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their maws and swallow us."
[Source: Just Pacific, www.justpacific.com/fiji/fijiphotos/books/cannibalIsles/index.html?PHPSESSID=a8d1ad215502d4e5792958a363c82861]

Photographer: This print was provisionally attributed to “?Dufty Brothers, Levuka”, but a duplicate print of the third image is published in Brewster, A.B., 1937, and attributed to Colonel Stewart, R.E.. The Photographer field has been amended accordingly. [JD 9/3/2012]

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