A leaf-shaped bladed paddle with plain handle from Buka
1872 British Association address: Let us see how far they serve to support our views as to variation and continuity now that they are put together.…. 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. …
Blue book entry [circa 1874] - Patterns consisting of animal and vegetable forms conventionalized in ornamentation 512 - 24 Paddles. Human figure shewing the transition by which the original designs have been lost and gradually converted into a crescent form. New Ireland Part p80
1875 ‘Evolution of Culture’: 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. … In the second figure [Fig 2] 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 [1884.61.30].
Written on object [?before 1884]- [in pencil] 30
?Pre-PRM label [?before 1884]- Small handwritten label with printed decorative borders which is virtually unreadable, it ends '15/' which might be 15/- [and therefore the price]. If it is a sale label the first word might be 'lot' but it is difficult to be sure [NB it could be 154?]
Old General Pitt Rivers Label [before 1884]- [Printed label stuck to paddle] 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.
?Delivery Catalogue I entry [1884] - Paddles of the New Irelanders Paddle wood painted and carved 30 Screen 176 177
Written on object [after 1884] - New Ireland PR coll ?Blue 514
Accession Book IV entry [1920s] - 1884.61.1 - 65 Design - Development and Degradation of - 1884.61.29 - 41 Series of paddles with coloured designs to show possible degradation of design New Ireland (Buka type) Leaf blade, pointed with plain handle, grotesque figure (squatting) in coloured relief [Drawing]
Additional entry - 512 - 524 [1884.61.29 - 41] Blue Solomon Islands Buka formerly labelled New Ireland Buka paddles shewing development from man to crescent in PR coll. First reference by the General is when as Lane Fox he gave an address on Anthropology to the British Association. Transactions of the Sections. In 1872 page 168 paddles of 'the New Irelanders, one of the Papuan group of islands adjoining the one in which Bishop Patteson was lately murdered'. Bishop Patteson was murdered on Nukapu in the Santa Cruz group; the Solomon Group is next and then New Ireland. Distances are considerable. [BB]
Card Catalogue Entry [1940s] - Solomon Islands Buka (formerly labelled New Ireland) ?514 Blue. Paddle; leaf blade, pointed with plain handle; grotesque figure (squatting) in coloured relief No 2 in series to show possible degradation of design
