Headband

Forster Register C.6: ‘a headband [part of the Otaheitian mourning dress]’

Plaited band with its maximum width in the middle and tapering towards the two ends, where several plaited strings serve to fasten it. These strings are the beginnings (or the endings respectively) of the material from which the double trim of the headband was made. In the centre of the band, four holes and, in part, remnants of strings can be seen which had been pulled through the holes. From this, it may be concluded that an ornament (cf. Oz 109) must have been attached there. Similar headbands from the Cook collections are to be found in Cape Town, Dublin, and Oxford (Kaeppler 1978a: 166). Brigitta Hauser-Schaüblin

Source

Kaeppler, Adrienne L, ‘Artificial Curiosities’ Being An Exposition of Native Manufactures Collected on the Three Pacific Voyages of Captain James Cook RN [Exhibition catalogue], Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1978a.

Related artefacts

Headband uhikana, Inv. Oz 109
Headband, Inv. Oz 106