British Empire & Commonwealth (T/PAPU/195)

Spear, thick heavy wood, maybe palm wood. With a skeuomorphic joint in the more tapered end.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/PAPU/196)

Spear, wood, mostly plain with some incised swirl design

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/PAPU/199)

Spear, palmwood shaft with carving on the top and bottom thirds, inlayed with lime (rather than chalk). Vegetable fibre near the blade (now much decayed), cord binding near the butt end. Bismarck Archipelago.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/PAPU/201)

2 bows, palm wood, triangular cross section, very tapered at each end, curvy linear carving at one end. Sepik style.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SEYC/3)

Palm wood shaft, a hardwood curved handle, four bone? decoration.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SIER/151)

Staff, carved wood, snake with forked copper tongue chases animal, knob at top, bearded man at bottom. Wood stained dark brown.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SIER/183)

Paddle, wood, head bound with rattan, iron shoe on the blade.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SING/59)

Large bamboo and fabric fan. Cloth is black with handpainted design in gold.This type of fan is usually used to decorate homes. The double dragon design is very popular.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SOLO/92)

Spear, palm wood overlaid with woven rotan, red and yellow, incised design at the point end, animal bone barbs on point. Two stylized figures back to back. 8 layers of bone barbs lashed to the point. Only three levels are intact. Fibre binding is very fragile.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SOLO/96)

Model canoe. Long, narrow, carved black wood. Decorated with shell inlay, cowrie shells, feathers & pink binding. Wood block mount with maker's name & date. Wooden case.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SRIL/81)

Walking stick, wood, painted, black with red and yellow patterns

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/SRIL/40)

Ceremonial spear, bamboo, painted and lacquered, red, brass blades.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/TONG/81)

Sections of a presentation tapa cloth (with stripes 31-34). Painted in columns in brown and black. Probably rubbed on a pattern template and then hand painted in black. Stitched onto a polyester wadding backing. ‘A Gift to the Commonwealth Institute from the people of Tonga’.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/UGAN/70)

Unidentified object, wood, hollow, tube, slightly curved, carved geometric patterns, painted black. Cap or cover missing from both ends. Two holes which could be for string. Could be a drum?

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/UNKN/133)

Cane shaft with wooden spear head. Head carved with jagged saw teeth. Cane is very damaged and held together with tape. Oceania.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/UNKN/141)

3 arrows. 1) Small, East Africa with a cane shaft, wooden fore shaft bound with gut? socketed arrowhead, small triangular point on a long tang and fixed to the fore shaft with gut? binding. Neck bound with gut? 2) Wood shaft? to take the tang of a fore shaft or arrowhead bound with gut?, fletched with four feather tied on with cord or gut. Arrowhead missing. 3) Shaft from bamboo, head bound with gut to take the tang of an arrowhead (missing). Small nock at other end also bound with gut?

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/UWAF/26)

Wooden xylophone. Wooden frame with 7 wooden keys. Four good resonators of different sizes tied underneath the keys. Holes in the gourds covered with paper. Tied with nylon string and plastic string.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/WEST/59)

Dancing spear, wood, carved, groups of triangular spikes, incised geometric design with lime, tip broken.

British Empire & Commonwealth (ARTTEMP3)

Oil painting, showing back of girl in striped dress in foreground, two women in wrappers in background, under umbrella, lush foliage on right side, rain falling. Signed bottom right.

British Empire & Commonwealth (2002/240/001)

Officers hat for the Kings African Rifles with badge and ostrich feather. 1st (Nyasaland) BN KAR Khaki bush hat with upturned brim on left side, as worn, secured with the badge of King's African Rifles. There are two sets of ventilation holes on the sides of the hat. The brim is 75mm deep and is edged with two rows of machine stitching. Inside is a brown leather sweat band with the stamp "Made in South Africa 1943 Harritz Hat Factory" Stitched to both sides is a piece of black elastic.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1996/088/167)

Bust of Col Cotton

British Empire & Commonwealth (1154.TET)

Chinese fiddle. Coconut shell resonator, horsehair bow, two cord strings with tuning pegs. Bow is broken. SE/MC/1 (EX).

British Empire & Commonwealth (1999/029/001)

a) Puggaree(turban). Length of turban cloth. fine cotton, navy with a paler strip each side. One end is woven with stripes of gold, navy and white thread in varying combinations and widths. Knotted fringe at end tied with gold thread. At the other end a matching length of the gold fabric has been sown to end of long piece or original piece shortened by stitching. Very wide seam. b) and Kullah(associated hat), conical, shaped by four seams from a thick gold thread, woven, ribbed with a red flannel rim, blue and white cotton lining, back seam is split either deliberately to make bigger or through wear.

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/AFRI/11)

Walking stick, long wooden shaft, quite split with a round wooden handhold, shaft bound with plaited wire, rusted iron wire in seven bands, wood between shows marks of wire binding but now gone.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1067.TET)

Wooden drum, wooden body single skin, probably goat skin? tied with rattan cords with wooden pegs to tighten the skin.Marked 'AF/MC/3 (M13)'.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1069.TET)

White cotton, narrow trip weaving with 7 strips sewn together, strips in plain or patterned designs across the strips. Mali?

British Empire & Commonwealth (1071.TET)

Decorated gourd, design of Cypriot scenes and varnished.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1073.TET)

Standing wooden figure. Probably Senufo, Ivory Coast. Large head with facial scarification. Figure holding ‘plaits’. Back hollowed out.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1074.TET)

Engraved brass pot, hammered, scenes of a deer hunt amongst trees.

British Empire & Commonwealth (Test 10)

British Empire & Commonwealth (T/BANG/121)

Model of log boat, plaster, 2 male figures with poles, 1 female figure with baby, bundles of fish.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1170.TET), The Howard Vincent Map of the British Empire showing the Possessions throughout the World of the British People..., The Howard Vincent Map of the British Empire showing the Possessions throughout the World of the British People...

The Howard Vincent Map of the British Empire... Map of the world, printed in colour, showing British Empire colonies in pink, railways, cables and steamboat routes. 1924. Title bottom centre, with a picture of King George V. Table bottom left showing territories, size, population and annual revenue. Map bottom right showing the British Empire in 1713 and 1815. Possibly 1817 of an edition of 7500? Written in pencil bottom centre below '1924 Twenty-first Edition' ('From the walls of the Commonwealth Institute.' Unaccessioned.)

British Empire & Commonwealth (1078.TET)

Wooden mask, tourist art, showing a Maasai man. Kenya.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1076.TET)

Straw hat in two colours, wide brim.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1079.TET)

Section of bark cloth cut from the edge of a presentation cloth. Section number 1 with a painted bird. From Tonga. Labelled ‘Barbara Ritchie’.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1080.TET)

Fan. Circular basket work with ginger stripes around the edge.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1081.TET)

Fan. Circular, pink and green/blue circular bands edged with feathers which are mostly eaten or damaged.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1082.TET)

Palm leaf fan, wide strips of leaf fibre with black and red dyed leaf intertwined. Tuvalu.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1084.TET)

Palm leaf fan, wide stripes of leaf fibre with an openwork edging.

British Empire & Commonwealth (1075.TET)

Wooden mancala board, 16 holes, dark stained wood with flower and foliage incised decoration.