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Object Number
97-39-70/72853
Display Title
"Mermaid"
Descriptions
Object Description
"Mermaid" - Described as "Java Mermaid" in "Buried Treasures of the Peabody Museum", Prof. Steve Williams, Dept. of Anthropology, Harvard University, No. 2, 1969. The object is an imaginative construction with body and tail of a fish joined to a grotesque head. Head, torso, and arms appear to have been fashioned from pigmented papier mache applied to a foundation of carved wood and possibly a wire armature to articulate arms, fingers. Teeth are possibly the upper and lower mandible of a fish artificially set into the "mouth." Surface "hair" is applied in patches, much of it lost, attached originally with a prepared coating of unidentified gum resin or paste. See Conservation report for materials analysis.
Inventory Description
Sculpture, anthropomorphic torso, fish tail, covered with fuzz, teeth, claws
Classification
- Sculpture
Department
Ethnographic
Date
1897 or earlier
Geography/Provenience/Site Name
Oceania
/
Indonesia
/
Java
Dimensions
Overall: 12.5 × 12.8 × 37.8 cm (4 15/16 × 5 1/16 × 14 7/8 in.)
Storage: 51.7526 × 19.685 × 21.59 cm (20 3/8 × 7 3/4 × 8 1/2 in.)
Quantity
1
Label on object
72853
Credit Line
Gift of the Heirs of David Kimball, 1897
Provenance
Provenance
Boston Museum
Donor
Heirs of David Kimball
(1897)
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| PrimaryMedia | Object Number | Title | Classification | Geography/Provenience | SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28-6-60/D3257 | Mermaid |
Sculpture
|
Japan
| |
| 60-48-10/39075 | Greenstone carving of a mermaid |
Carving
|
Cape Dorset
| |
| 2001.16.3 | Ceramic polychrome jar with raised mermaid motif |
Jar
|
Santa Maria Atzompa
| |
|
Image Not Available
for Mould of glypic inscription.
| 973-3-20/25049 | Mould of glypic inscription. |
Archaeological
|
Chichen Itza
| |
| 993-24-20/27430 | Ceramic black burnished mermaid playing guitar; vase or candlestick? |
Figurine
|
San Bartolo Coyotepec
| |
| 969-29-70/4720 | Figure with mirror, painted |
Sculpture
|
Papua New Guinea
| |
| 2004.24.28025G | Mermaid |
Fiji
| ||
| 2004.24.28025H | Mermaid |
Fiji
| ||
| 2004.24.25763 | Mermaids (Exhibited for many years in the Boston Museum) |
Japan
| ||
| 2004.24.28025C | Mermaid |
Fiji
| ||
| 2004.24.28025A | Japanese and Fiji Mermaids |
Fiji
| ||
| 2004.24.28025D | Mermaid |
Fiji
|