IDNO

P.99885.VH

Description

Studio portrait of a Fijian man, dressed for the occasion in a white isulu skirt and waist sash, and with a smoked brown barkcloth or masikuvui shoulder sash. The muscles of his legs below the knee are braced with braided vesasausauwai wrappings, the fringes of which are strung with trade beads.
Circa 1873. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1873

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: This print was provisionally attributed to “?Dufty Brothers, Levuka”, but the 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 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]