Fijian masi
Hunterian Museum Collection, GLAHM E.537
Art Historical Description
A fine sample of Fijian masi kesa fabric produced with paper mulberry bast. It is intricately stencilled in black, red and brown. This sample comes from the outer edge of a much larger fabric, a small section of the most iconographically complex part of the cloth – its outer border. It was donated to the Hunterian in 1887 by Dr David Blyth, a provincial medical officer in the British colonial administration of Fiji.
Images
Details
Type
sample
Date
1880-1887
Decorated
yes
Dimensions
105.5cm (length) x 73cm (width) x 0.3-0.4mm (thickness)
Manufacture
Associated Materials
Broussonetia papyrifera; Aleurites moluccana (sap expressed from outer wood); Syzygium rivularis; Syzygium effuse; Aleurites moluccana (soot collected from flames of burning nuts)
Associated Techniques
bark removal; pre-soaking; river-board cortex stripping; short bast soak; initial beating – wooden anvil and square beater; pre-fusing; lapped tab creation; spreading and homogenisation; flat-faced beater smoothing; composition pasting at sheet edges; post-completion conditioning; stencilled decoration; fringe cutting
Associated Fabric Types
masi kesa
Conservation Description
Surface cleaned, humidified, tears and splits and delaminating areas supported with Japanese paper. Stored rolled on acid free tube.
Version
Entry created on 28 August 2020