In February I visited the Pacific collections at the Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex Park in Birchington on Sea, Kent. The purpose of the visit was to get a general overview of the Pacific collections, which were in the process of being rediscovered and catalogued in a collections review by the newly appointed collections manager. The Powell-Cotton neither has a Pacific focus or an electronic catalogue so the visit was something of a treasure hunt.

The Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park in Kent houses the natural history and ethnographic collections of Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton. Powell-Cotton collected from all over the world but predominately Africa. In 1981 the collections of the Powell-Cotton were assessed by Keith Nicklin for the Museum Ethnographers Group newsletter. He noted that the development of the museum can be understood in three distinct phases; the first as the founding of the museum and the development of its field based collections, the second as the development of the museum itself and cataloguing and filling gaps in the collection, and the third occupied by Nicklin and his article in the 1980s and onwards as the analysis and publication of the collections. The development of the Pacific collections occurred during this second phase. Between 1936-1938, sensing a gap in his collections, Powell-Cotton bought up several collections from the Pacific. His Pacific collections were purchased in six lots from auction houses and local amateur collectors. One of these collections was comprised of 103 objects from the Davis collection and it is this collection that drew my interest.

Edward Henry Meggs Davis commanded the Australian station third class cruiser, H.M.S Royalist, between 1890 and 1893. He sailed around the western Pacific, stopping at the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu (Ellice Islands), Kiribati (Gilbert Islands), Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. The voyage was divided into several trips over the course of three years, with Davis originally working in Vanuatu and New Caledonia in 1890. In 1891 he was then instructed to establish law and order in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea after the deaths of several European traders in the region, and spent a approximately a year there. Davis then sailed around Kiribati and Tuvalu declaring British protectorates amongst the Islands. The Davis collection was made during these assignments and objects were collected from the Islands he worked in, as well as in the Islands the ship passed on its way back and forth to Australia where the ship was stationed.

Davis returned to his home in Bexhill, Sussex in 1894, commissioning a local printer to publish a catalogue of his Pacific collection of just over seven hundred objects. Originally intending to sell the collection to a friend – who later declined to make the purchase – Davis found himself tasked with selling the collection in order to fund his retirement. He chose the firm Gerrard and Sons, a London based taxidermist and dealer, to sell the collection on his behalf. Gerrard and Sons was set up by Edward Gerrard in 1850 and run by his sons and brother as a taxidermists and furriers, remaining a family firm until its closure in 1967. Edward Gerrard had set up the firm in whilst employed in the Zoology department at the British Museum, continuing to work at the British Museum and hiring his son to run the new business. The sale of the Davis collection drew on both Gerrard and Sons’ and Davis’ networks of private collectors, and museum curators within the UK and Europe. Parts of the collection were purchased by private collectors James Edge-Partington, Harry Beasley and J F G Umlauff, and museums including the British Museum, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, and the Powell-Cotton. Currently the collection can be found in the Powell-Cotton, the Pitt-Rivers, the Horniman, the British Museum, MAA Cambridge, Liverpool World Museum, National Museums Scotland, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Otago Museum and Auckland Museum.

The initial visit in February to the Powell-Cotton has led to me attempting to track the dispersal of the Davis collection; photographing, cataloguing and hopefully exhibiting the various parts in their various locations. This blog entry discusses a few objects from the Davis collection and the visits I have made to the museums who act as custodians for this dispersed collection.

D73/1938 Copyright Ali Clark

The focus of the Powell-Cotton Davis collection appears to be body adornment, and their collection is rich in these type of objects particularly from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. 80% of the Davis objects purchased for the Powell-Cotton are made of animal parts fitting with Powell-Cotton’s interest in the natural world such as D73/1938, two polished sperm whale teeth from the Solomon Islands, hung on a plaited coconut fibre cord. Davis describes these objects as having been worn around the neck and would have been worn as valuables alongside other neck ornaments such as D63/1938, two clam shell neck ornaments that are missing their cords.  In an article on whales teeth ornaments, Rhys Richards writes that Davis was collecting these valuables during ‘his punitive raids ‘to stamp out headhunting’ from coastal villages around Roviana Lagoon and at Munda’ (Richards 2006:11).  Unusually the Richards article reveals research conducted at the Powell-Cotton highlighting their collection of Davis whales teeth and arguing that D73/1938 ‘is particularly interesting in having two pairs of tiny holes centrally placed…but also a single large hole at the gum end (seemingly made by a metal drill), so that it could have been hung horizontally or worn vertically’ (Richards 2006:11). The whales teeth at the Powell-Cotton are by no means ‘star’ objects, but what makes them more interesting is their ability, alongside other pieces of body adornment in the collection, and other items such as shell fish hooks, to demonstrate how people used their environment, and the social life and material culture of the region, as well as what was perceived as valuable or interesting by Davis.

D63/1938 Copyright Ali Clark

Subsequent research into the Davis collection revealed a rich archive of documents relating to the movements of the ship and Davis’ work in the Pacific, housed at the National Library of Australia, the Australian Maritime Museum and the National Archives at Kew. Research conducted in Australia in April also revealed a photo collection taken during the cruise of the Royalist by an unknown photographer. Copy collections are held at the Macleay Museum, Sydney and the British Museum, with the original album held at the Fiji Museum. Through these photographs we gather glimpses of the material culture being used, or worn by the people Davis often brought onto the ship. Further research needs to be done on these photographs but through them and the archives we can begin to contextualize the practice of collecting.

Oc1904,0621.29 Copyright Ali Clark

The next collections visit was to the British Museum, who have 141 objects from the Davis collection, 67 purchased via the Christy Collection, 41 purchased directly from Gerrard and Sons and 33 donated by the collector Harry Beasley. The British Museum were given first pick from the collection and chose many of the ‘masterpiece objects’ one of which is an incredibly intricate cuirass from Kiribati (Oc1904,0621.29).  The armour is made from plaited lengths of coconut fibre placed on top of one another. Each one is then covered with two ply twisted coconut fibre cords and are secured in place by interlinking cord. The sides of cuirass have a waistband and the back has a knot of coconut fibre cord with human hair protruding from it. A panel of porcupine ray skin is fixed to the front and right side of the torso with coconut fibre. The head guard is decorated with two black lozenges of human hair, thought to represent dolphins with bands of hair as edging. Described in the Davis catalogue as no.495 ‘Sennet armour, breast covered fish skin, and helmet of fish skin. Gilbert Islands’.  I believe the helmet he refers to to be Oc1904,0621.28. Based on reading the ships logs, held at the National Archives these two objects  would have been collected between the 24^th of May 1892 and the 30^th of July 1892. This armor is also depicted in one of the photographs held at the Fiji Museum. There are two holes mid way down the front of the porcupine ray skin, and some damage in a patch further down to the left with one large perforation near the base of the cuirass perhaps made by weaponry; this same hole can be seen in the photograph.

Finally a few weeks ago I visited the Pacific collections at the Horniman. The Horniman has sixty-four objects from the Davis collection, two donated by Beasley, the rest purchased from Gerrard and Sons. Davis collected a variety of objects associated with life in the Pacific such as body adornment, clothing, fishing equipment, bags, weapons, musical instruments and tools. Many objects within his collection are associated with everyday life, however Davis also collected some ‘masterpiece’ objects, often described as ‘rare’ in his catalogue. Most of these are now in the British Museum, however some of these eye catching pieces are within the Horniman collection and include two beautifully carved fish hooks (30.49, 30.53), and one Kiribati body belt (30.40) made from porcupine ray skin that would have been worn with the armour described above.

30.49 Copyright Horniman Museum

The two bonito fish hooks from the Solomon Islands would have been used for fishing without bait, as the iridescent mother-of-pearl colour and the ‘glittering of the shank when moving, looked like little live fishes which the bonito tried to snap at’ (Mosher 1955: 186). What is different about these two fish hooks is that the shank of one (30.49) has been purposely carved out of pearl shell to resemble a bonito fish, whilst the other (30.53) has a fish carved from pearl shell wrapped onto the tortoise shell shank with coconut fibre binding. Through reference to their utilitarian purpose these objects become visually stunning. These objects also demonstrate the reliance on the sea for Solomon Islands society, as whilst being used for fishing they are also made of materials from the sea; turtle shell and pearl shell.

30.40 Copyright Horniman Museum

The belt is formed from two pieces of porcupine ray skin sewn together with human hair and coconut fibre cord. The ends of the skin are sewn onto wooden poles, which have been wrapped in hair and coconut fibre. A two-ply twisted coconut fibre cord is attached to these poles possibly to enable the wearer to pull the belt tighter. Described in the Davis catalogue as ‘498 Body belt of ray skin, very rare’ this belt would have been worn as armour, over a coconut fibre cuirass, accompanied by coconut fibre arm and leg coverings and a fish skin helmet. In his notes from Kiribati Davis writes that the Gilberts people have ‘sharks teeth spears and swords, also complete suits of armour made of rope from the coconut fibre. Occasionally fighting belts are worn over these made from the skin of the stingray’ (Davis The Proceedings of the HMS Royalist 1892). Pacific Presences is also currently conducting a survey of coconut fibre armour in UK museum collections. Initial research has demonstrated that coconut fibre armour is relatively common amongst museum collections from Kiribati, but these porcupine ray skin belts are much less common with only a few in the UK and Europe.

Collections’ such as Davis’ are complex relational assemblages and when looking at the Horniman’s Davis collection I can begin to see Davis’ large collection reform as similar objects begin to pop up and the collecting patterns of curators and collectors begin to emerge.  A final example of this are the objects described by Davis as ‘Ingenious flying fish hook line and float, Onotoa, Gilbert Islands’. These objects are 606-609, 612 and 624 in his catalogue and are found in the British Museum (Oc1894,-.225-227 and Oc1980,Q.946), Horniman (30.37) and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (E 1904.47). Each float bears the handwritten inscription ‘Flying Fish Line, Onoatoa, Gilbert Ids’, most probably made by Davis, and the MAA object even has the Davis catalogue number 608 written next to this inscription. Whilst the objects were all provenanced to Davis in some way, the MAA object was not listed on the collections database as being collected Davis. It was through recognising the handwriting and the inscription from those objects in the British Museum and the Horniman that correct attribution could be given on the online database.

Oc1894,-.226 Copyright Ali Clark

MAA E1904.47 Copyright Ali Clark

30.37 Copyright Horniman Museum

The Horniman was the fifth museum to hold objects from the Davis collection that I have visited, and I have two more to visit in the UK over the coming months. By visiting these many museums begins to expose the ways in which museums and collectors in the UK and mainland Europe were engaging with the Pacific, and how these collections were being formed.

Ali Clark