IDNO

P.99913.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty Studio portrait of Ratu Savenaca and Yadi Tatila and family including young Yadi Litia (between her parents, she was a particular favourite of Baron von Hugel’s) and “little Viniana” (in front of Yadi Tatila).
As a high chief, Ratu Savenaca is dressed vakatoga or Tonga fashion, with a gatu barkcloth wrapper bulked over and fastened high up beneath his ribs and secured by a waist sash. See P.99999.VH for another slightly older view of Yadi Viniana.
Circa 1873. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka; Bau

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Ratu Savenaca; Yadi Tatila; Yadi Litia; Yadi Viniana

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (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 image is recognisable as Dufty’s Levuka studio 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 13/3/2012]

MAA Exhibition: The original print was displayed in Chiefs and Grovernors: Art & Power in Fiji, May 2013 - April 2014. [JD 20/04/2014]

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 21/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 18/9/2003]