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Male Chalk Figure
Namatanai District
19th century
Object Place: Namatanai District, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea
Medium/Technique
Limestone, chalk
Dimensions
38.1 cm (15 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William E. and Bertha L. Teel
Accession Number1994.398
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAfrica and Oceania
ClassificationsSeals
Provenance1897, sold by William Downing Webster (dealer, b. 1868 - d. 1913), to Lt.-General Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers (b. 1827 - d. 1900), Farnham, England; January 1, 1898, transferred to the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham [see note 1]; until the 1960s, kept at the Pitt-Rivers Museum and passed by descent within the family [see note 2]; 1970s, sold upon the dispersal of the collection. September 27, 1980, sold by Wayne Heathcote Gallery, Paddington, N. S. W., Australia, to William and Bertha Teel, Marblehead, MA; 1994, partial gift of William and Bertha Teel to the MFA; 2014, acquired fully with the bequest of William Teel to the MFA. (Accession Dates: January 26, 1994 and February 26, 2014)
NOTES:
[1] In the Pitt-Rivers notebooks, the illustration accompanying a chalk figure sold by dealer Charles Jamrach to Pitt-Rivers in 1886 closely resembles the MFA figure (Room 7, case 81; Pitt-Rivers notebooks, vol. 2, p. 230). The back of the MFA figure, is, however, inscribed "BT WEBSTER / SEP 97 / PI." William Downing Webster sold a similar object to Pitt-Rivers on March 10, 1897; the accompanying illustration shows a figure that is painted, but otherwise resembles the MFA object (Room 7, case 81; Pitt-Rivers notebooks, vol. 4, p. 1440). It is not known exacly when or how it left its original location. Figures of this type were usually destroyed after use; see Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), p. 116, cat. no. 56.
[2] The collection of the privately-owned Pitt-Rivers museum passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in the 1960s and the collection was sold.
NOTES:
[1] In the Pitt-Rivers notebooks, the illustration accompanying a chalk figure sold by dealer Charles Jamrach to Pitt-Rivers in 1886 closely resembles the MFA figure (Room 7, case 81; Pitt-Rivers notebooks, vol. 2, p. 230). The back of the MFA figure, is, however, inscribed "BT WEBSTER / SEP 97 / PI." William Downing Webster sold a similar object to Pitt-Rivers on March 10, 1897; the accompanying illustration shows a figure that is painted, but otherwise resembles the MFA object (Room 7, case 81; Pitt-Rivers notebooks, vol. 4, p. 1440). It is not known exacly when or how it left its original location. Figures of this type were usually destroyed after use; see Christraud M. Geary, ed., From the South Seas: Oceanic Art in the Teel Collection (Boston: MFA, 2006), p. 116, cat. no. 56.
[2] The collection of the privately-owned Pitt-Rivers museum passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in the 1960s and the collection was sold.