IDNO

P.99967.VH

Description

F.H Dufty studio photograph of a bearded chief, dressed in Christian warrior or ceremonial garb and holding a heavy gadi club. Round his neck is a beaded necklet fronted by a small white cowry shell, over his shoulder a fringed white barkcloth iwabale or shoulder sash. He is wearing his old time malo loincloth girded high up under his ribs in the provocative malowala manner, but masks his loincloth from the waist down by a fringed white barkcloth sash and black likusausauwai skirt. The muscles of his upper arms and his calves are braced by braided black vesasausauwai wrappings with plain and with beaded fringes. Note the photographer’s clamp.
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; Ovalau Island; Levuka

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

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: This print 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 16/3/2012]

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 26/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 13/10/2003]