IDNO

P.99896.VH

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.4106.ACH1: “17 plates of Fijians.” [typed text]

Two F.H. Dufty studio portraits of Tui Bua, the high chief of southwestern Vanualevu,
Circa 1875-1876. See P.87213 and P.4106.ACH1 for further notes. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

A pair of F.H. Dufty studio portraits of Tui Bua, the high chief of Bua in southwestern Vanualevu, sitting side on and then facing the camera. His hairstyle denotes him as a Christian, but his pierced right ear lobe, stretched to accept a now abandoned saunidaliga ear lobe ornament, shows he was born and raised in accordance with the Fijian religion. To his left is an iirimasei fan made from a niumasei or Pritchardia pacifica leaf, this style of fan being a badge of office and serving as a sunshade. From the chest down he is wrapped in a brown-patterned sheet of gatuvakatoga barkcloth secured by a broad sash, being dressed vakatoga, or in the chiefly Tongan fashion.
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003, from record P.4106.ACH1, updated JD 7/11/2011]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

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 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: The use of this specific iirimasei fan, with an edging of a double roll and triangular cut? leaves, as a studio prop, along with the wooden chair, are recognisable as used by Duftys’ Studio, Levuka, circa 1875 - 1876. The Photographer, Date, and Place fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 26/3/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 16/9/2003]