IDNO

P.99882.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty studio portrait of Ratu Timoce Tavanavanua, second son of Ratu Seru Cakobau and Yadi Samanunu of Bau, holding a totokia club. He is wearing a batinivuaka boar tusk necklace, the fringed white barkcloth iwabale shoulder sash of a chief, a malo loincloth, and a liku overskirt of striped and dyed pandanus leaf, with a pandanus leaf vesa wrapping round his upper left arm. Propped behind him is an iirimasei fan made from a leaf of the niumasei fan palm, Pritchardia pacifica. Note the photographer’s clamp behind him.
Circa 1873-1874. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Ratu Timoce (Timoci, Timothy) Tavanavanua

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1873 - 1874

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.

Photographer: Dufty’s Levuka studio is recognisable through the painted studio backdrop to represent a view out a window with shutters (note the knob added to the shutter that casts a shadow). This appears to be a feature of Dufty’s studio throughout the 1870s, although the idealised landscape ‘view’ changes around 1875-1876. The use of this specific iirimasei fan, with an edging of a double roll and triangular cut? leaves, as a studio prop (see P.87396.VH for full detail of three of the iirimasei used), are also recognisable as used by Duftys’ Studio, Levuka, circa 1875 - 1876. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 20/3/2012]

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 16/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 10/9/2003]