IDNO

P.99833.VH

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.4097.ACH1: “17 plates of Fijians.” [typed text]

Five studio portraits of Ratu Seru Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau, taken in the 1870s. Centre, with massive side whiskers, Circa 1877. Bearded views Circa 1873 - 1875. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

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 Brothers, Levuka; Stewart (Colonel, R.E.)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1870 - 1880; 1873 - 1874; 1876 - 1877

Collection Name

von Hügel Collection

Source

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.99726.VH to P.100050.VH were in the belted folder now numbered C539/3/. This was formerly kept in paper archive Large Box G; VH1/4/5. It has now been transferred to the photo archive. The lists describing the contents of this box have been returned to the Paper Archive.

Publication: The third image (P.100138.VH) 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]

Publication: Duplicates of the 4th and 5th images are on the websites ‘www.pictureaustralia.org’ and ‘www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/’.
A duplicate of the 4th image is also on the website ‘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 12/02/2003]

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]

Publication: The fifth image is published on National Library of Australia website, reference nla.pic-an10975065-4, with the following information:
Creator: Dufty, Francis H., 1846-1910.
Title: Cakobau [picture] / F.H. Dufty.
Date: between 1870 and 1879.
Extent: 1 photograph : carte de visite ; 7.3 x 5 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: 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]

Photographer: This print was provisionally attributed to “?Dufty Brothers, Levuka”, but duplicates prints of images three and five are published on the National Library of Australia website with the attribution to Francis Dufty. The Photographer field has been amended accordingly. [JD 9/3/2012]