‘opu‘u (pendant)

Object status:
Deaccessioned
Museum number:
11-1901
Permalink:
ark:/21549/hm21110001901
Accession number:
Acc.587
Description:
Buffish crystalline stone: calcium crystal. Perforation in one end. Apparently imitation of a whale's tooth.
Donor:
Mrs. Jackson R. Myers
Collection place:
Maui, Hawaiian Windward Islands, Hawaiian Islands
Verbatim coll. place:
Hawaii; Maui; Maui
Culture or time period:
Hawaiian
Collector:
Jackson R. Myers
Collection date:
1900-1917
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Pendants (jewelry)
Function:
2.2 Personal Adornments and Accoutrements
Accession date:
1922
Department:
Oceania
Comment:
Description: "Lei ``opu``u"; lei = necklace, copies of the early "``opu``u" - form of "lei niho palaoa", or "whale's tooth necklace" were carved from calcite, stalagmites, and stone." (fide Barbara (Kanani) Burns). Remarks: "Hiroa, Te Rangi (Peter Buck) "Arts and Crafts of Hawaii", p. 535, Fig. 331 a-c. Funnel-shaped holes drilled toward center from either side, "attest to their pre-European manufacture." "This specimen does not have a funnel-shaped hole." "Exhibited 1978 Settlement of Polynesia.
Images:
Hearst Museum object titled ‘opu‘u (pendant), accession number 11-1901, described as Buffish crystalline stone: calcium crystal. Perforation in one end. Apparently imitation of a whale's tooth.
Legacy documentation:
Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled ‘opu‘u (pendant), accession number 11-1901, described as Buffish crystalline stone: calcium crystal. Perforation in one end. Apparently imitation of a whale's tooth.

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