ARTEFACTS FROM THE SALOMON ISLANDS

Description

The collection of objects of the Solomon Islands Julius Brenchley was considered from the beginning as one of the main and most important Pacific ethnographic private collections. This collection is now being partly to the Museum of Man (the British Museum Ethnography department) and at Maidstone Museum and the Museum of Art and the Art Gallery in Kent . This catalog, produced by the most important authority on the art of the Solomon Islands, now makes this important collection available to the wider community of curators, anthropologists, and others interested in the history and the Pacific art.

Jules L. Brenchley was ordained priest but later became an avid traveler whose travels have taken him in August 1865 to the Solomon Islands. Although the boat has spent only two weeks in the islands, Brenchley has amassed a rich and varied collection of over 1,000 articles. The fact that the date of acquisition is exactly known allows the collection to be placed in its specific historical context, thus lending it additional scientific value.

The art and material culture of the Solomon Islands are among the most distinctive of the Pacific. This varies beams or rods elaborately carved and decorated with inlaid shell cups finely engraved ornaments. Detailed descriptions, illustrations and content full well founded in this catalog are a reference book on the subject.