PADDLE F.0013
Object
F.0013 is listed and described in the Ethnographic Collections at UCL’s
Anthropology Department as a paddle – carved and painted in red, white and
black designs. It measures approximately 165 cm in length by 15 cm at
the widest point on the blade, and is only about 5 cm thick. The
object has been claimed to be originally from the Solomon Islands, Melanesia,
and previously held within the Wellcome Collections before entering the
Ethnographic Collections. The
paddle is light in weight and designed for aesthetic pleasure due to the
painted carvings, which have remained somewhat intact, and induce the fact that it was not intended for hard, laborious ocean work. Haddon (1937, 84) notes that the
blades on the paddles from the Bougainville and Buka islands in the northern
Solomons are an elongated oval, not so sharply pointed, and characterized by
remarkable designs, sometimes human figures, in red and black paints and on a
white ground.
(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Red and black pigments are very visible, loss of white pigment. |
(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) The handle is not as decorative as the blade. |
There has been a tremendous amount of loss concerning the
pigments, the white pigment in particular, which once covered the backdrop as
suggested by the remaining stains appearing all over the background of the
paddle. The blade forms an elongated oval tapering down towards the handle, and
is not as sharply pointed as some of the other paddles within the Ethnographic
Collections, nor does it have a decorative crutch. Haddon (1937, 84) has
theorized that the whole blade may represent a fish. Paddle F.0015 is the most
similar object within the collection.
(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Low relief carvings, almost undetectable without raking light. |
(Source: UCL Ethnographic Collections) Damage is visible as chips to the black pigment and splits in the wood. |
References:
Chowning, A. (1977). An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Melanesia, 2nd ed. London: Cummings.
Haddon, A. (1937). The Canoes of Melanesia, Queensland, and New Guinea. Honolulu: The Museum.
Kjellgren, E. (2007). Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This post refers to coursework done for ARCLG142 (2016-17), one of the core courses of the UCL MA Principles of Conservation. As part of their assessed work for this course, students were asked to investigate objects from the UCL Ethnography Collections at the UCL Department of Anthropology. Here they present a summary of their main conclusions. We hope you enjoy our work! Comments are most welcome.
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