Lot Essay
Traditional finials carved on the pestles used to pound breadfruit and taro are ribbed or winged (one with upright "wings" was published by Hawkesworth in 1773 after the First Voyage, see Joppien and Smith, 1985, p. 158), but Garanger (1967, p.15, fig.3) sketches one with a plain rectangular finial from Tautira, a district in the south-eastern part of Tahiti famed for its black beaches.
On the First Voyage Captain Cook spent three months in the Society Islands, ten days of which he was in Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora. He stopped for only a week on the Second Voyage (17/23 August 1773), but returned in April the following year with the valuable red feathers that greatly assisted him in trading with the local chiefs. On 29 April 1774 he writes: Early in the Morn Otoo, Towha and Several other Grandees came on board and brought with them not only provisions but some of the Most Valuable curiosities in the island which they gave me... (Beaglehole, 1961, p.388). On 7 May he received from Otou's father a compleat Mourning dress, curiosities we most valued.... Whilst in Huahine on 16 May he writes Oree the Chief, he brought with him a Hog and some other Articles which he presented to me with the usual ceremony (op.cit. p.412): on Raiatea on 4 June ...none of them came empty handed ... Cook sailed for Niue on 5 June. On the Third Voyage he spent from 14 August until 7 December 1777 on Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine and Raiatea, but records no specific gifts, apart from food
We can therefore only surmise that the present pounder may have been carved for presentation to Captain Cook, most probably on the Second Voyage. As it was not carved with a traditional style of finial he might not have considered it a "specimen" to be preserved by such as Sir Joseph Banks and the Earl of Sandwich, but a present to himself which he was able to keep
On the First Voyage Captain Cook spent three months in the Society Islands, ten days of which he was in Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora. He stopped for only a week on the Second Voyage (17/23 August 1773), but returned in April the following year with the valuable red feathers that greatly assisted him in trading with the local chiefs. On 29 April 1774 he writes: Early in the Morn Otoo, Towha and Several other Grandees came on board and brought with them not only provisions but some of the Most Valuable curiosities in the island which they gave me... (Beaglehole, 1961, p.388). On 7 May he received from Otou's father a compleat Mourning dress, curiosities we most valued.... Whilst in Huahine on 16 May he writes Oree the Chief, he brought with him a Hog and some other Articles which he presented to me with the usual ceremony (op.cit. p.412): on Raiatea on 4 June ...none of them came empty handed ... Cook sailed for Niue on 5 June. On the Third Voyage he spent from 14 August until 7 December 1777 on Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine and Raiatea, but records no specific gifts, apart from food
We can therefore only surmise that the present pounder may have been carved for presentation to Captain Cook, most probably on the Second Voyage. As it was not carved with a traditional style of finial he might not have considered it a "specimen" to be preserved by such as Sir Joseph Banks and the Earl of Sandwich, but a present to himself which he was able to keep