IDNO

P.87364.VH

Description

Studio portrait of Tui Bua - see P.87213. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

Studio portrait of “Tui Bua, Hf caste [half-caste] Fijian & Tongan”, a high chief of Bua, western Vanualevu, sitting side on to the camera. His right ear lobe has been slit and stretched to accomodate a now forsaken saunidaliga or ear lobe ornament, indicating, as would be expected of a man of his age, that he grew up in the Fijian religion. He wears a dark checked sailor’s shirt with three quarter length sleeves, but is otherwise dressed vakatoga, in the Tongan style favoured by chiefs on formal occasions and when not actively engaged, consisting of a large brown-patterned gatu wrapper folded and doubled over just beneath the chest, and secured by a broad barkcloth waistsash. Next to his chair is an iirimasei fan, made from a single leaf of the niumasei fan-palm, Pritchardia pacifica, and borne by chiefs and priests as a badge of office and sunshade.
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003, from record P.87215., updated JD 7/11/2011]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka; western Vanualevu; Bua

Cultural Affliation

Fijian

Named Person

Tui Bua

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1875 - 1876

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Photomechanical Print

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87352.VH to P.87387.VH were in the envelope now numbered C512/6/. This envelope came from the Museum’s paper archive envelope VH1/4/7, which has now been re-numbered C512/.

Named Person: The man is named as Tui Bua on the reverse of P.87213 and P.87215. [Alex Nadin, 12/02/2003]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Program One. [Alex Nadin, 12/02/2003]