IDNO

P.99933.VH

Description

Two F.H. Dufty studio photographs, each of two different men in ceremonial or war dress of the 1870s, and holding clubs, the man at left of the left photograph holds a kiakavo, his chiefly counterpart in the right hand photograph a holds gadi. Their dress essentially consists of the malo loincloth, screened discretely from the waist down in that hallmark of the Christian warrior, a liku overskirt. The chiefs wear white or brown smoked barkcloth iwabale shoulder sashes. Two have itaubebatinivuaka or boar tusk pendants at their throats - highly fashionable in the 1870s, when they were imported from Tanna in the New Hebrides (currently Vanuatu) by the labour traders. The chief at the right of the right hand photograph, who is the right hand man in P.99929.VH [identified as Ratu Epeli Vakacaracara, a Rewa chief] in different dress, has cock tail feathers in his hair, his companion has two tail feathers of the Red-tailed tropicbird (Phaeton rubricauda). The two men in the left hand picture wear ornamental combs. Vesa arm and or leg wrappings worn by the men in the right hand photograph. Note the photographers clamps.
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003, updated JD 24/1/2012]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka; Southeast Vitilevu; Rewa

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Ratu Epeli Vakacaracara

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.

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 24/9/2003]