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Notes
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As the name suggests, short pahu hula drums such as this were played to accompany hula dancing in eighteenth century Hawai‘i. The drum has a sharkskin tympanum stretched across a hollow wooden cylinder, with zigzag lashing and a base modelled in two rows of crescents; comparison with other examples shows that these forms are highly abstracted from a traditional row of caryatid figures with their arms raised. In Captain John Laskey’s 1813 guidebook to the first Hunterian Museum, this artefact is mentioned as one of 'two drums from the Sandwich Islands.' Consequently, William Hunter almost certainly purchased this drum at the June 1781 sale of David Samwell’s collection amassed during Captain Cook’s third voyage of Pacific exploration.
Title
Pahu Hula Drum
Date
1700–1778
Medium
hardwood, sharkskin & olona fibre
Measurements
H 28.2 x W 25.5 x D 25 cm
Accession number
GLAHM:E.437
Acquisition method
bequeathed by William Hunter, 1783
Work type
Sculpture
Inscription description
Hand-cut gummed paper label: Drum from Otaheite. HAWAII
The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
82 Hillhead Street, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ Scotland
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