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| 1886.1.1258 (left), 1886.1.1259 (right) |
These two fragments of barkcloth were brought back from
Cook’s first voyage to the South Pacific between 1769-1771. These pieces
were provenanced to the Society Islands/Tahiti, where James Cook,
naturalist Daniel Solander and astronomer Charles Green observed the
Transit of Venus in 1769.
Tahitian barkcloth, or ‘ahu was typically made from the bark of the paper mulberry, and the breadfruit tree as
well as two types of Ficus. Barkcloth made from the paper mulberry,
characterised by its soft, fine quality with white colour, was worn by
people of high rank. According to the museum’s records it is possible
that these fragments were obtained in Batavia, Java, Indonesia, during
Cook's stopover there in late 1770. The
barkcloth was given to Oxford University in 1883 by Captain D.E.E
Wolterbok Muller, of the Dutch Royal Navy Service, who had seen other
Cook-voyage objects from Oxford at the 1883 International Exposition in Amsterdam.
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| Beater marks visible under magnification 1886.1.1258 (left), 1886.1.1259 (right) |
The fragments appear to be previously stored folded,
perhaps in a similar way the to pile of barkcloth in this image from
Tahitian section of the exhibition 'From the Islands of the South Seas 1773–4' held at the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1970.
As a result, the objects now have creases along the folded
areas. There were also folds along the edges, which were also a result
of the previous storage.
After surface cleaning with a gentle vacuum and a soft
brush followed by very gentle application of Smoke/Chem sponge, the
creases and folds were humidified using a humidifier and Preservation
Pencil at 40 degrees Celsius.
After the humidification treatment, the objects were re-housed into custom-made folders made of acid-free card.
