Necklace, Fiji

William Jamieson, Toronto, possibly acquired from the collection of the Niagara Falls Museum
Rainer Werner Bock, Maui
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on May 14, 2015

Dramatic necklaces such as this were much prized in Fiji in the mid-19^th century. Known as wasekaseka or waseisei, the necklaces were made from cut sections of sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) teeth, with the elegant, sweeping curve of each individual “tusk” following the natural curve of the tooth. Hooper notes that “sawn vertically and horizontally, a large tooth could probably furnish from six to ten tusks, which were then rubbed and polished to a smooth finish.” (Hooper, Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacific, Norwich, 2016, p. 136). Like other prestige objects fashioned from whale teeth, these necklaces were probably made for the chiefly class by Tongan canoe craftsmen, and whilst exact “places of manufacture are hard to establish […] they are very likely to have been canoe-building centres in Lau, northern Fiji and possibly Kadavu.” (ibid.). These coveted objects certainly circulated throughout the Fijian archipelago; Clunie notes that many necklaces “made their way into the highlands of eastern Viti Levu […] mostly as a form of blackmail paid by the coastal and lowland chiefs in enlisting or subverting the dread highland mercenaries.” (Clunie, Yalo i Viti: a Fiji Museum Catalogue, Suva, 1986, p. 160).