A Maori Putorino - an Art Treasure

1886.1.1153

This is Forster No. 116, 'A flute', from New Zealand. 

The putorino is only found in New Zealand, and is esteemed by the Maori.  Sometimes the instrument is called a bugle flute, because it has two complementary voices, male and female.  The male voice with it's kokiri (negotiating skill) sounds when the instrument is played as a trumpet, using the large hole at proximal end. The sound is used to summon, or to make people aware of something about to happen, and each named call has a meaning.

The female voice sounds when the instrument is played like a flute, using the opening half way down the instrument.  This voice is sometimes a crying sound, and is used on appropriate occasions.

The sounds made "can stir a wide range of emotions, from the ghostly chill of an icy wind to the heart-warming resonance of a peace-giving hue puruhau" (resonating gourd instrument). (Brian Flintoff, Taonga Puoro - Singing Treasures, The Musical Instruments of the Maori, Nelson, New Zealand, 2004).

1886.1.1153 Detail of carving

The shape of the instrument is derived from the shape of the casemoth coccoon that houses Raukatauri, Goddess of Flute Music.

Bugle flutes were made in two halves, using a dense wood like matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia).  Once the inside was shaped, the two halves were bound together with the split aerial root of the kiekie vine (Freycinetia banksii).

1886.1.1153 Detail of kiekie binding, with applied plant resin

This was applied when wet, and shrank on drying to hold the pieces tightly.  Before binding, a sealant such as the sap of the tarata (Lemonwood tree, Pittosporum eugenioides) was applied to the edges of the two halves.

The museum labels on this putorino were removed for the 1970 Pitt Rivers exhibition 'From the Islands of the South Seas', and were retained in the museum archives.  One of the labels was especially interesting, as it meant that the flute was sent by the Ashmolean to the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857.

This exhibition ran from the 5th May to the 17th October, and still remains the largest art exhibition ever held in the UK.  There were more than 16000 works on display, and 1.3 million people visited.

The Exhibition Hall

The venue was a specially constructed hall, similar to the Crystal Palace in London.  The hall was divided into separate galleries, including Pictures by Ancient Masters, Pictures by Modern Masters, Engravings, Works of Oriental Art, and Sculpture.  Works were borrowed from over 700 collections, most of them private.  One of the nobility, when approached to lend to the exhibition, is said to have replied 'What in the world do you want with Art in Manchester? Why can't you stick to your cotton-spinning?'

Nine objects currently in the Pitt Rivers Collection were sent to Manchester, seven of them from Polynesia.  They were presumably exhibited either in the Museum of Ornamental Art or in the Oriental Court.  Although an editorial in the Manchester Guardian on the 20 July 1857 was of the opinion that 'we are inclined to regard the museum of ornamental art as that portion of the present Manchester exhibition which is calculated to produce the most practically useful result, and to be of the highest importance to the community' the contents of that gallery are not listed in the exhibition catalogue.

See Jeremy Coote, 'A review of The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857.  Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public' in 'Journal of the History of Collections' Vol 24, Issue 1, 2011.

Tongan Panpipes

1886.1.1560 Panpipes

Several sets of panpipes (mimiha) from Tonga were brought back by the Forsters from the second voyage.  This set, and one now thought to be from Vanuatu were listed in the 'Catalogue of Curiosities' as 'No. 84 and 85 Two of Pan's pipes or syringae'

There are ten bamboo pipes in the set, bound together with plant fibre.  The bottom of each pipe is closed by a natural node in the bamboo, and the top edge has been bevelled to make it easier to blow into.

Detail to show bevelled top edges of pipes

It has been suggested that panpipes in Tonga were used by the lower classes as a substitute for the noseflute, which was a chiefly instrument.  The panpipes could suggest the sound of two noseflutes playing together, and the number of pipes and their tuning could have been suggested by the tuning of the noseflute.  Unlike the modern South American panpipe, the tune was almost 'built in' to the design of the Tongan pipes, and the player just had to move the instrument across his lips.

The plant fibre binding on the pipes has broken in several places, and is very brittle.  In a previous conservation treatment, possibly in 1970 before conservation records at the Pitt Rivers began, very fine nylon fishing line has been used just above each line of plant fibre to tie the pipes together and stabilise them.  The fishing line is virtually invisible and is not damaging the pipes, and so it will not be removed.

See Adrienne Kaeppler, 'A study of Tongan Panpipes' Ethnos 39 (1-4) 1974 pp102-128

A Tongan Noseflute

Numbers 82 and 83 in the Catalogue of Curiosities are described as 'Two flutes, for the nose.'  Number 83, 1886.1.1534, is now thought to be from Vanuatu, but No.82, 1886.1.1532, is certainly a noseflute, or fangufangu,  from Tonga.  

1886.1.1532 Noseflute, Tonga

In Tonga flutes blown with the nose were used to awaken chiefs - it was considered very bad manners to do it any other way.   Famously, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were woken by the sound of noseflutes during their visit to the Kingdom of Tonga in 1954.  At the time of Cooks' visit, noseflutes were also played in the evenings 'for pleasant amusements'

The noseflute in the Forster Collection is made from a piece of the large bamboo known as pitu, with a node at each end, forming a hollow sealed cylinder.  Holes were made with a shell-bladed hand twist-drill close to the node at each end, with three further holes then made roughly equally spaced along the length of tube between the first two holes.  A final hole was made opposite the central hole. 

The noseflute could theoretically have been played from either end, although it seems that one end was usually preferred.  The playing position involves blocking one nostril with the thumb, and using the other nostril to blow into the first hole, nearest the node.  The second or third finger of the same hand would be used to block the second hole.  The thumb of the other hand is used to support the instrument, while a finger of that hand blocks the hole nearest the end of the flute.  Only two holes appear to have been used, giving a range of four notes.

Detail of decoration

This flute has been decorated by burning a design onto the surface.

See R. Moyle, 'Tongan Musical Instruments', Galpin Society Journal Vol.29 May 1976 pp64-83