It is to General Pitt Rivers without doubt that we owe the stimulus which has of recent years led many workers to investigate the gradual development of the various Arts of mankind, and to endeavour to trace their histories back to their absolute origins. The illustration of the gradual growth of Decorative Art from simple beginnings was a part of his scheme for establishing series of objects with a view to tracing the stages of in the evolution of all the material arts of mankind. With this object in view he accumulated material and formed series to illustrate the origin, growth step by step, and variations of certain patterns, and these series form some of the most interesting and striking features of his collection. Amongst many others one may mention the series illustrating the ‘varieties and geographical distribution of the Loop Coil;’ series showing the gradual degradation of designs representing the human form and their conversion to meaningless ornament, illustrating the importance of successive copying as a factor in the evolution of patterns; ... It is much to be regretted that with the exception of valuable remarks embodied in essays upon wider subjects, and a few descriptions of the development of special patterns, we have not the benefit of his researches into the history of Decorative Art in a published form.’ [Balfour, 1893: vii-viii]

Introduction

For many of the objects in the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, which were donated to the University of Oxford in 1884 by Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900), we have very little source documentation. Such documentation as we have come from three scrappy notebooks from South Kensington Museum, two delivery catalogues and the documentation written on labels and on the objects themselves. The only other source of information which came directly from Pitt-Rivers (or as he then was, Lane Fox) were the contents of his 1874 printed catalogue of some of the objects displayed at Bethnal Green Museum. These sources are rather patchy, providing varying degrees of information about each object. However, much can be made of these scraps of information when they are allied to other bits of relevant knowledge. I hope to explore what this means for the study of the founding collection by concentrating on a series of paddles from the Pacific.

A. The paddles in 1872: the British Association

We first encounter our 11 (or is it 12 or 13) paddles in 1872 at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1872 held in Brighton. Lane Fox was the vice-President of section D. It is clear from what he says in his address that he started collecting this series some seven years before, (that is, around 1865), and that he obtained them (or said he obtained them) from two main sources, ‘curiosity-shops’ and from ‘by travellers from the South Seas’.  Lane Fox observed that ‘The New-Irelanders ornament their paddles with the figure of a man painted in red and black, carved upon the face of the blade’. He implies that he did not pre-ordain or screen the images but that he has organized the sequence from the paddles that he was able to obtain circumstantially, the illustrations obtained by happenstance. In other words he attempts to show that the evolution or degeneration of the image must be ‘true’ because evidence for it (the evidence as selected by him) was gained by accident rather than design. He selects two of the images as in essence the before and after or alpha and omega of the degeneration.

My … illustration is taken from the ornamental paddles of the New-Irelanders, one of the Papuan group of islands adjoining the one in which Bishop Patteson was lately murdered. In none of the productions of savage art is the tendency to continued variations within narrow limits more strongly shown than in these ornamental patterns. Whilst the form of a club or paddle appears to remain unchanged for many generations, the form of ornament upon it will be subject to variations, which, however, are not the less found to be continuous and connected when a sufficient number of specimens are collected, so as to enable their history to be traced. The continuous looped coil and its varieties, and its ultimate development into the continuous fret pattern, may be traced in its migrations through distant regions. Sometimes a particular variety of these patterns will establish itself in a tribe or a nation, and whilst subject to an infinity of subvarieties, it will be found to be repeated over and over again in all the weapons and implements belonging to this tribe. The ornamentation employed by the tribes on the N.W. coast of America consists entirely of the representation of a bird's head, the eyes and beak of which have been subject to such variations in copying as completely to have lost all trace of the original design. The New-Irelanders ornament their paddles with the figure of a man painted in red and black, carved upon the face of the blade. Fig. 2 is a good example of this conventionalized mode of representing the human figure in full; fig. 11 is another ornament upon the paddle of the same people; and between these two figures it would not at first sight appear possible that any connexion could be traced.

Ingenious theories might, perhaps be based upon the occurrence of such a figure as that represented in fig. 11 amongst the Papuan Islands, it might be assumed that Mahomedanism had once penetrated that region, and they had adopted the symbol of the crescent, or the advocates of spontaneity would find no difficulty in at once assuming that they had copied the new moon. No one who had not by previous experience been impressed with the continuity pervading all savage ornamentation would dream of connecting two such widely different forms as those represented in these two figures. Those, however, who are familiar with the pictographic changes which marked the origin of the Phoenician and Scandinavian alphabets, or who have studied Mr Evans's work on Ancient British Coins, or the researches of Mr Edward Thomas into the Coins of India, will be prepared for the marvellous transformations to which human and other forms are subjected when they are copied and recopied by the inaccurate and uninstructed eyes of savage imitators. They will remember how the chariot and horses on the Greek coins of Philip of Macedon, in the hands of the Gaulish and British artists, gradually lost, first the body of the chariot, then the body of the charioteer - how the wheels of the chariot became mixed up with the body of the horse, and the head of the driver appeared floating like a cherubim over the horse's ears - and how, on the obverse of the coin, the nose and features of the head gradually disappeared, until nothing but the wreath converted into a cruciform ornament remained to connect it with the original figure of the Greek king. …
Impressed with the idea of the physical identity of people in the same condition of culture, I determined to collect New-Ireland paddles, and see whether a connexion would be found to exist between the peculiar patterns with which they are ornamented. The result is the series now before you, which I have obtained at different times during the last seven years as they turned up in curiosity-shops or were brought over by travellers from the South Seas; and it must be understood that these particular specimens are not selected to serve my purpose. I have here given the whole of the collection of patterns which have fallen into my hands. Let us see how far they serve to support our views as to variation and continuity now that they are put together.
Fig. 1, it will at once be seen, represents both on the handle and on the face of the blade, the head of a Papuan; the large black mass on the head, like a grenadier-cap, is the Papuan head-dress peculiar to these parts; the ears are elongated according to the custom of these people, and pierced with an ear-ornament; the eyes are round black dots, the nose a triangular red mark, and the same colour is spread over the forehead. Fig. 2 represents the full figure of a Papuan sitting; the ears are drawn down towards the hands, the head is somewhat conventionalized, the line of the nose is carried round the eyes in a scroll, and there is a lozenge-shaped pattern on the forehead. Fig. 3 is nearly the same figure represented as sitting sideways, simply by lopping off an arm and a leg on one side. In fig. 4 we have two arms, but no legs, and the head continues much the same as in the two preceding figures. In fig. 5 the whole body is gone, and the scroll-pattern round the eyes is modified in form. In fig. 6 we see a great change in the form of the head, which is much more conventionalized than in the preceding figures; the eyes are reduced to small dots, and are rendered subordinate to the scroll formed by prolongation of the line of the nose; the sides of the face are concave, and conform to the line of the nose; the chin and mouth are enlarged; the head is surmounted by the Papuan head-dress as before; there is a lozenge pattern, as before, on the forehead; the elongated ears are there, but the ear ornament has disappeared; in this face the nose has become the prominent feature, and the other features are subordinate to it. In fig. 7 a still greater change has taken place; the greater part of the face and head are gone. In the last figure we saw that the nose was becoming the prominent feature, here it is nearly the only feature left; the elongated ears are drawn down the sides of the nose; the lozenge-pattern on the forehead still remains; but the lines, which in the previous figures led to the head-dress and to the scroll-pattern, have been turned into a kind of leaf-shaped ornament, resembling what appears to have been the upper lobe of the ear in the previous figures; the eyes are brought down on to the nose. In fig. 8 we have nearly the same figure as the last; the nose is divided in two; the elongated ears are drawn out square with the line of the nose; the lozenge-pattern on the forehead is still preserved. In fig. 9 we see the same figure as in the last example, except that the triangular nose has merged into what, judging by the  previous figures, appears to be the chin, or it may be merely an enlargement of the base of the nose. Fig. 10 represents a further change in this direction; the lozenge-pattern and the ears are now gone, and the leaf-pattern is much reduced; the nose also has almost disappeared into the chin. Lastly, in fig. 11, we come to our Mahomedan emblem, or copy of the new moon. What is it? Who would have believed it was the chin of the human figure? Yet so it is. It is the last vestige of a human face, copied and recopied until all trace of the original has been completely lost. We have here a complete parallel to the transformations observable on British coins, showing with what close analogy the minds of men in the same condition of culture, though of widely differing races, obey the same laws and are subject to the same causes of variation and continuity in the developments of their arts. Now, if we suppose the connecting-links which are exhibited in these figures to represent the connecting-links of myths. customs, religions, or languages, or any other productions of human ingenuity which are not embodied in material forms or committed to writting [sic], it is evident they would have been lost; they would not have turned up in curiosity-shops, or been brought together side by side in an instructive series. The theory of the spontaneous adoption of crescent-shaped patterns, by copying the moon, would have become established as an almost self-evident fact in our minds, and no one could have for a moment have seen reason to doubt it. [Taken from Colonel Augustus Lane Fox’s address to the Anthropological Department of the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Brighton, 1872]

You will have seen from the extract given above how his descriptions underline the progression. However it is also clear (if you ignore the fact he thought the paddles came from a different place) that he was reasonably well informed about peoples' dress, particularly the characteristic upi headdresses worn by young men during initiation (an example of which is shown on this page), which Lane Fox compares to a Grenadier Guards helmet.

As will be seen when you examine the photographs of the specimens, Lane Fox chose to concentrate on specific designs painted on to the paddles. Most of the paddles have other designs upon them that he does not mention. In his address he went through each of the chosen images in some detail. It seems probable that rather than bringing the actual paddles to the BAAS meeting, he exhibited some form of poster of this illustration at the address. At the end he asked a rhetorical questions about what the crescent shape represented, at which point he expected his audience to agree with him that it was the last vestige of the figure that had originally been shown to be more realistically depicted.

The use of John Evans' Ancient British Coins in the address shows Evans’ earlier depiction of degeneration, a rather more convincing depiction and discussion of degeneration of imagery over time. The origins of Lane Fox’s illustrative method and also Evans' influence on his thinking are made clear. Lane Fox tried to show, in this address, how the study of variation, continuity and degeneration can illustrate history and development. At this juncture he seems to have been particularly interested in the development of artistic forms rather than (as we shall see later) solely the degeneration of imagery. See here for further discussion of coins and Evans and Pitt-Rivers.

One of the more interesting things to note is that the address makes clear that in 1872, Lane Fox only owned 11 of these clubs. As we shall see later, he later added to this series though he left the illustration and text as it was in 1872.

Note for a similar discussion about degeneration of representation of a human face (in this case the goddess Athene) see here.

B. The paddles in 1874: first displayed in a public museum

Our second encounter with the paddles dates to 1874. In that year Lane Fox, for the first time, agreed that substantial portions of his then private collection, would be loaned to the South Kensington Museum authorities for display at their branch museum in Bethnal Green Museum. For the first time the paddles moved from a private to a public domain. Most museum displays are annotated with text in some way and Bethnal Green Museum was no exception, a catalogue was printed and many (or all) objects were labelled, usually by paper labels stuck to the object. In addition, limited museum documentation from Bethnal Green Museum staff still exists which can be dated to the period between 1874 and 1884.

The 'Blue Book'

The exact contents of the collection Pitt-Rivers loaned to Bethnal Green Museum in 1874 are unknown but three notebooks still exist, in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, which purport to contain information about some of these objects. Thirteen paddles from New Ireland are entered in one of these notebooks, known as the 'Blue book', and were given numbers 512 to 524. It seems therefore that the paddles formed part of the original loan to Bethnal Green Museum. It seems that they were probably displayed in Bethnal Green Museum in 1874 in the order that they appear in the Blue Book. Eleven of these paddles had been illustrated in the 1872 address discussed earlier but 2 new ones had now been added. The blue book was supposed to have been written by Bethnal Green or South Kensington Museum staff between 1874 and 1884 (these entries are likely to be very early within this period), but it seems likely that the source of the information written within was Lane Fox himself. Certainly the phraseology sounds very like his style.

The blue book entries suggest that all of the paddles were displayed in a series of cases called ‘Patterns consisting of animal and vegetable forms conventionalized in ornamentation’ on a screen entitled 'Human figure showing the transition by which the original designs have been lost and gradually converted into a crescent form. New Ireland'. Note that Blue 511 (before the first paddle in the series) is unconnected to the series being described as ‘Illustrations of Human and Animal form Cases 92 - 93 Iron rod with carved wood handle 2100’ [1884.67.102].

Blue 512: The handle represents a human head with the Papuan headdress. The ears elongated and pierced with an ear ornament. The eyes are concentric circles, the nose triangular. The same figure is traced on the blade. [1884.61.29]
Blue 513: The handle represents a human head, with the Papuan headdress. The ears are elongated and pierced with an ear ornament. The eyes are concentric circles, the nose triangular. The same figure is traced on the blade. [1884.61.34, this paddle had been added to the series after 1872]
Blue 514 : Ornamented with a human figure sitting front view. The line of the nose is carried round the eyes in a scroll, the ears elongated and pierced. The head is surmounted by a Papuan headdress. A diamond pattern on the forehead. [1884.61.30]
Blue 515: This object no longer has/ never had a printed glued label. [1884.61.31, this paddle had been added to the series after 1872] 
Blue 516: Ornamented with a human figure sitting sideways and face fronting the line of the nose is carried round the eyes in a scroll the ears elongated and pierced. The head is surmounted with a Papuan headdress. A diamond pattern on the forehead. [1884.61.32]
Blue 517: Ornamented with a human figure. The legs and body deficient. Both hands and arms raised. The head the same as the preceding figure. [1884.61.33]
Blue 518: Ornamented with a human figure. The whole body deficient. The head much conventionalized. The eyes represented by small dots and rendered subordinated to the scroll formed by the prolongation of the nose line. The sides of the face concave, and conforming to the lines of the nose. The head is surmounted by the Papuan headdress, reduced in size, the ears elongated as in the preceding figure. In this face the nose has become the prominent feature and the other features are made subordinate to it. [1884.61.35]
Blue 519: Ornamented with the vestiges of a human figure, the body and the greater part of the head deficient. The nose and ears only remain. The eyes are brought down into the nose, the chin, mouth, the proper eyes, the headdress and the sides of the face are deficient. The diamond pattern on the forehead remains. The elongated ears are traced along the sides of the nose and the lines leading to the headdress are converted into a kind of leaf pattern. [1884.61.36]
Blue 520: Ornamented with the vestiges of a human figure as in the preceding specimen. The elongated ears are brought out horizontally. The diamond pattern of the forehead remains. The lines leading to the head dress are formed into a leaf pattern having 4 leaves instead of 3 as in the preceding example. The nose is divided into 2 halves by a vertical line and the two sides are coloured red and black. [1884.61.37]
Blue 521: Ornamented with the vestige of a human figure as in the preceding specimen. The base of the nose is expanded and curved so as to conform to the line of the chin as in the case in one of the former examples. [1884.61.38 ]
Blue 522:  The figure with which it is ornamented represents the vestiges of a nose with the base expanded and turned so as to conform to the line of the chin as in the preceding example. Above which is a triangular figure with 5 divergent points which is no doubt a further reduction of the leaf ornament of the preceding figure. The elongated ears are deficient in this specimen. [1884.61.39]
Blue 523: The crescent shaped figure with which it is ornamented probably represents the chin of a human face enlarged. The resemblance may be seen by reference to some of the preceding examples. [1884.61.40 ]
Blue 524: By comparing the upper part of the body and tail of the fish, with the nose of the human face, and the lines leading from the nose to the scroll round the eyes, and by comparing the wings of the fish with the lines of the elongated ears in the preceding figures, it appears not improbable that the fish on this specimen may be a transformation of design, derived originally from that of the human face, described in the preceding examples [1884.61.41 This paddle was not discussed in the 1872 address ]

Blue 525, 1884.12.253, a paddle from the Solomon Islands, does not seem to be connected to the above series.

Bethnal Green Museum Labels

A second source of information was a series of paper labels stuck onto each of these objects (except for one) and presumed to date from either before 1874 (when they would have been added by Lane Fox himself) or at Bethnal Green Museum in 1874, by museum staff under the instruction of Lane Fox. The information printed on the labels also sounds like the sort of thing that would interest him and his phraseology.

In 1874 Lane Fox had two main ways of providing information to visitors to his displays at the London museums. Firstly for part of his collection (mostly weapons) he relied upon a printed catalogue. However, this does not include all the objects on display, and does not mention our paddles. They, instead, had printed labels glued to them. Each of these describes the particular paddle to the visitor.

1884.61.29 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. The handle represents a human head with the Papuan headdress. The ears elongated and pierced with an ear ornament. The eyes are concentric circles, the nose triangular. The same figure is traced on the blade
1884.61.30 Paddle New Ireland Ornamented with a human figure sitting front view. The line of the nose is carried round the eyes in a scroll, the ears elongated and pierced. The head is surmounted by a Papuan headdress. A diamond pattern on the forehead.
1884.61.32 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. Ornamented with a human figure sitting sideways and face fronting the line of the nose is carried round the eyes in a scroll the ears elongated and pierced. The head is surmounted with a Papuan headdress. A diamond pattern on the forehead.
1884.61.33 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. Ornamented with a human figure. The legs and body deficient.Both hands and arms raised. The head the same as the preceeding figure.
1884.61.34 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. The handle represents a human head, with the Papuan headdress. The ears are elongated and pierced with an ear ornament. The eyes are concentric circles, the nose triangular. The same figure is traced on the blade.
1884.61.35 Paddle New Ireland. Ornamented with a human figure. The whole body deficient. The head much conventionalized. The eyes represented by small dots and rendered subordinated to the scroll formed by the prolongation of the nose line. The sides of the face concave, and conforming to the lines of the nose. The head is surmounted by the Papuan headdress, reduced in size, the ears elongated as in the preceding figure. In this face the nose has become the prominent feature and the other features are made subordinate to it
1884.61.36 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. Ornamented with the vestiges of a human figure, the body and the greater part of the head deficient. The nose and ears only remain. The eyes are brought down into the nose, the chin, mouth, the proper eyes, the headdress and the sides of the face are deficient. The diamond pattern on the forehead remains. The elongated ears are traced along the sides of the nose and the lines leading to the headdress are converted into a kind of leaf pattern
1884.61.37 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. Ornamented with the vestiges of a human figure as in the preceeding specimen. The elongated ears are brought out horizontally. The diamond pattern of the forehead remains. The lines leading to the head dress are formed into a leaf pattern having 4 leaves instead of 3 as in the preceeding example. The nose is divided into 2 halves by a vertical line and the two sides are coloured red and black.
1884.61.38 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. Ornamented with the vestige of a human figure as in the preceding specimen. The base of the nose is expanded and curved so as to conform to the line of the chin as in the case in one of the former examples.
1884.61.39 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. The figure with which it is ornamented represents the vestiges of a nose with the basse expanded and turned so as to conform to the line of the chin as in the preceeding example. Above which is a triangular figure with 5 divergent points which is no doubt a further reduction of the leaf ornament of the preceeding figure. The elongated ears are deficient in this specimen. And a second label saying
PADDLE. NEW IRELAND.   The figure with which it is ornamented probably represents the chin of a human face modified.  Above which a triangular figure with five divergent points, probably represents the leaf pattern of some of the preceeding [sic] examples, or it may be a human hand, as seen in one of the preceeding [sic] figures.
1884.61.40 PADDLE, NEW IRELAND. The crescent shaped figure with which it is ornamented probably represents the chin of a human face enlarged. The resemblance may be seen by reference to some of the preceding examples [Printed label stuck to object on side with decoration AND on the other side, the labels are exactly the same wording]
1884.61.41 [P]ADDLE. PROBABLY FROM NEW IRELAND, OR ONE OF THE PAPUAN ISLES. By comparing the upper part of the body and tail of the fish, with the nose of the human face, and the lines leading from the nose to the scroll round the eyes, and by comparing the wings of the fish with the lines of the elongated ears in the preceding figures, it appears not improbable that the fish on this specimen may be a transformation of design, derived originally from that of the human face, described in the preceding examples.

There are no such labels on 1884.61.31.

C. The paddles in February 1875: Pitt-Rivers' talk at Whitechapel Foundation School

See here for more information about the talk. Here is what he said about the paddles:

'... I have referred to these investigations of Mr Evans work with the view of pointing out [end insert] an exact parallel to this sequence of degenerating forms, derived from the ornamentation upon the paddles of the New Irelanders [insert] Figs 1 to 11 pl 10 [end insert] These figures are supposed to represent their tribal marks and if so the case is identical with those just spoken of, both in fact representing tribal badges. ***
I collected them at different times during several years as they came to this country for the purpose of tracing out graduations of departure from the original design being fully confident that I should ultimately discover the sequence and this I have succeeded in doing in such a manner as can I think leave no doubt of their continuity.
The first figure represents the head of a Papuan savage with his large head dress the lower lobes of the ears are drawn out & terminated by the ear ornament in use in that country, the eyes are two round spheres, the line of the nose spreads all over the forehead representing no doubt some kind of paint with which the face is ornamented. In the second figure the ornamentation of the face is more complicated the lines of the nose passes round the eyes in a kind of coil there is a lozenge pattern on the forehead but the rest of the face is the same as in the last figure the whole body is represented sitting facing the spectator. the 3rd figure is nearly the same as the last example but the body is represented sitting side ways chiefly by lopping off an arm and a leg on one side. In the fourth figure the head is the same but there are no legs only two arms. In the fifth fig there are neither arms nor legs the ornamentation of the face is a little changed the ear is extended but the knob at the extremity of this is gone the 6th figure we see a great change in the face beginning to take place the nose is beginning to expand at the base. the lozenge pattern and the coil round the eyes is still retained but the sides of the face with the extended ears is beginning to conform to the line of the expanded nose and has assumed a concave form. In the 7th figure the nose of this figure is evidently beginning to be the leading feature of the design
In the 7th figure a still further change in the same direction has taken place the nose is now the only feature left the sides of the face are gone the lozenge pattern of the forehead is retained but the head is gone and the ears follow the line of the nose on each side of it. the 8th figure is the same as the last except that the ears are at right angles to the central line of the nose the 9th figure is the same as the last except that there is a further expansion of the base of the nose which is here beginning to assume a half moon shape. In the 10th figure there is a still further expansion of the nose and the lozenge pattern the ears & other ornaments have been represented by the lazy [illegible] of this figure by 5 little points. In the 11th figure even the last vestige of the ears & forehead ornament has disappeared and the figure has been conventionalized into a simple crescent. No one seeing this figure apart from the others could in the least suppose that it ever stood for the nose of a human face. A better example could not be given to shew the necessity of studying all native ornament in its detail and in their connection with other forms in order to understand them ...'

D. The paddles in 1875: 'Evolution in Culture'

These paddles were a famous part of Pitt-Rivers’ collection. One of his best-known papers entitled ‘The Evolution of Culture’ was first presented to the Royal Institution of Great Britain on 28 May 1875. Although the paper was primarily concerned with setting out his general ideas about the evolution of culture, it did contain a sustained passage about the paddles which was closely based (though the tone had slightly changed) upon his 1872 address given above. He describes each figure slightly differently but the conclusions are the same. Nor has the drawing used to illustrate the paper changed, it is still the same one used 3 years earlier in the address the British Association, and did not contain drawings of the decoration on the two additional paddles he had acquired after 1872 and which he had added to the series as it was shown at Bethnal Green Museum. The final artefact from that series was also ignored again and not discussed.

… Realistic degeneration would equally take place in all cases in which pictorial representations came to be employed for other purposes than those for which they were originally designed, as in the case of ornamental designs.
I will now show you an exact parallel to these transformations in a collection of designs, supposed to be tribal marks, which are drawn upon the paddle blades of the New Irelanders, a race of Papuan savages inhabiting an island on the north-east coast of New Guinea.
Having noticed one or two allied varieties of design in specimens that came into my possession, I determined to collect all that I could find as they came to this country. In the course of several years I succeeded in obtaining the series represented upon Plate IV. …
The first figure you will see clearly represents the head of a Papuan: the hair or wig is stuffed out, and the ears elongated by means of an ear ornament, after the manner of these people; the eyes are represented by two black dots, and the red line of the nose spreads over the forehead. This is the most realistic figure in the series.  In the second figure the face is somewhat conventionalised: the line of the nose passes in a coil round the eyes; there is a lozenge pattern on the forehead, representing probably a tattoo mark; the body is represented as sitting in full.  In the third figure the man is represented sitting sideways, simply by lopping off an arm and a leg on one side.  In the fourth figure the legs have disappeared.  In the fifth figure the whole body has disappeared.  In the sixth figure the nose has expanded at the base and the sides of the face are made to conform to the line of the nose; the elongated ears are there, but the ear ornament has gone: the nose of this figure is becoming the principal feature. In the seventh figure nothing but the nose is left: the sides of the face and mouth are gone; the ears are drawn along the side of the nose; the head is gone, but the lozenge pattern on the forehead still remains; the coil round the eyes has also disappeared and is replaced by a kind of leaf form, suggested by the upper lobe of the ear in the previous figures; the eyes are brought down into the nose. In the eighth figurethe ears are drawn at right angles to the nose. In the ninth figure the nose has expanded at the base; all the rest is the same as in the last figure.In the tenth figure lozenge pattern and the ears have disappeared, and a vestige of them only remains in the form of five points; the base of the nose is still further expanded into a half moon. In the last figure, nothing but a half moon remains.

It was probably one of the most famous passages in all of Lane Fox’s publications.

E. The paddles in 1884: Transfer to Oxford

In 1878 together with all the other loaned objects, the paddles were moved from Bethnal Green Museum to South Kensington Museum. In 1884 Pitt-Rivers (as he had become) agreed to donate his collection to the University of Oxford, the donation which was to form the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Artefacts were transferred by staff at the South Kensington Museum working with Walter Baldwin Spencer, Edward Burnett Tylor and Henry Nottidge Moseley from the Oxford University Museum in 1885. To help in this process, two volumes of a delivery catalogue were prepared. In these all thirteen of the paddles are described as ‘Paddles of the New Irelanders Paddle wood painted and carved  Screen 176 177’. Each of the entries in the delivery catalogue also records a number like ‘519’ which make it clear that the Blue book numbers mentioned above were probably also recorded on or near the objects on the screen.

Translated the delivery catalogue entries mean that all the paddles had been displayed on Screens 176 and 177 in London. Many artefacts were not removed from the screens but transferred still on them so that they could be easily installed into the newly built museum at Oxford:

The Authorities of the Science and Art Department have presented to the University a series of wall screens made especially for the Pitt-Rivers Collection and to which a considerable portion of the collection still remains attached.  [University Archives, UC/FF/60/2/2]

Having attempted to ease the transfer, the fact that it took so long (nearly ten years) for the museum at Oxford to become fully open made Pitt-Rivers very angry. We do not know if the paddles were transferred still fixed to the screens, but it seems likely that this was the case.

See here for Part 2 of this article

AP, January 2011