Gorget
Associated with FG Bond on the HMS Providence, 1792.
Donated to RAMM by the Devon & Exeter Institution in January 1872. Entry in museum register states “feather gorget ornamented with shark’s teeth. Sandwich Islands. Otaheite?”
A military breast gorget designed to decorate a high-ranking warrior. According to early voyage drawings, men wore shown wearing them front and back. It is suggested that these gorgets symbolised the jaws of the shark, thus suggesting that the warrior adopted the qualities of the shark. Each taumi is constructed of highly valuable materials.
Height = 570 x width = 500mm
Donated to RAMM by the Devon & Exeter Institution in January 1872. Entry in museum register states “feather gorget ornamented with shark’s teeth. Sandwich Islands. Otaheite?”
A military breast gorget designed to decorate a high-ranking warrior. According to early voyage drawings, men wore shown wearing them front and back. It is suggested that these gorgets symbolised the jaws of the shark, thus suggesting that the warrior adopted the qualities of the shark. Each taumi is constructed of highly valuable materials.
Height = 570 x width = 500mm
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- E1769
- Category
- Ethnography
- Collection Class
- Religion and magic
- Collection Area Region
- POLYN
- Material
- woodtwisted fibresennitshark’s teethfeathers dog’s hair
- Common Name
- gorget
- Simple Name
- ornament
- Production Town
- Tahiti
- Production County
- Tahiti, Society Islands
- Production Country
- French Polynesia (Overseas Collectivity of France)
- Production Date
- 1792
- Production Year Low
- 1792
- Production Year High
- 1872
