Object Number: MIPCM 206.008
Object Name: Head Ornament
Collection: Goldie Objects Collection
Description: Southeast coast.
Collected c. 1876–1890.
Donated by Mr & Mrs Goldie, Ferry Road,
Millport, 1978.
Ornament made from the upper mandible and head feathers of a female Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus). The head feathers are attached to a piece of bark and decorated with a fringe of small red parrot feathers. Tassels of larger red parrot feathers are attached at sides. 29 x 16 cm
The beaks of the hornbill were sometimes worn as a form of head ornament by Papuans of the southeast coast. While the naturalist John MacGillivray commented on the strings of hornbill heads brought off to the Rattlesnake (presumably for trade) whilst the vessel was anchored off the Brumer Islands in August 1849, he does not appear to have known their function. Luigi D’Albertis lilustrated a bundle of Hornbill’s beaks, used as a headdress’ in reference to peoples he encountered around the Orangerie Bay area in 1873; the beaks appear to be tied together, suggesting that they may have been an indigenous trade article of the region.
Other Europeans commented on this form of adornment in relation to Papuan men they interacted with in and around Hall Sound and the adjacent mainland, including Redscar Bay (Moresby 1875: 7; Gill 1876: 250). For example, Captain Moresby (1876: 177) observed men occasionally wearing ‘two great beaks of the hornbill, as horns on the head’ whilst HMS Basilisk was anchored in Hall Sound in 1873. The example shown here indicates that the beaks were sometimes embellished with feathers and pieces of bark cloth to produce what must have been a spectacular ornament when worn on the body.
