Found on eBAY: Maireener Shell Necklace – UK

CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The network has started searching on the internet for references that may lead to new insights into cultural production using Tasmanian shells – and specifically to do with necklace making and 'Tasmaniana'. The necklace above turned up on eBAY and in the UK. There is increasing evidence that a great many necklaces of the kind represented in the image above [bottom] were being produced commercially in Tasmania alongside Tasmanian Aboriginal-[1]-[2]-cultural production.

What is of interest here is that the seller in the UK knew enough about the items they were selling to describe them as being; "Aboriginal" – albeit with a question mark & not Tasmanian – "vintage" and as "Mariner" – albeit not spelt 'maireener' as was possibly intended. Interestingly the word 'maireener' has gained considerable currency and arguably due to the internet and the possibility research cultural products more extensively this Tasmanian Aboriginal word used by the women making their necklaces has entered a wider lexicon.

The glass bead and maireener shell necklace is of interest in that it may have resulted from a 'restringing' in the UK or elsewhere. It is not typical of Tasmanian Aboriginal products. Also the maireener shell necklace has a clasp which also is not typical of Tasmanian Aboriginal products.

Watch this space for developments!

Shell Necklace – Totham Collection Hobart

CLICK ON THE I8MAGE TO ENLARGE

George Totham lived in Hobart at Battery Point and was an enthusiastic collector of furniture, ceramics and artwork. His collecting spanned from 1920's to 70's.

His collection was eclectic and he kept a complete collection of Chinese artefacts in a designated room where he played mah-jong. George Totham was a lawyer and in this role he was involved in the dispersal of many estates in Tasmania. Indeed he is reported to have been the auctioneer at many.

Given the circumstantial evidence, this necklace on the balance of probability originated in the Furneaux Islands and made by any one of a number of Tasmanian Aboriginal women making necklaces there over a long period.

George Burrows Tasmaniana Shell Necklaces

Launceston’s Brisbane Street is home to the proverbial ‘Brisbane Street Barons’. It is Launceston’s main street and the hub of the CBD. Like a number of streets in central Launceston Brisbane Street’s residential properties are circa 1890s to 1930s. It is unsurprising to find that at various locations along the street shell necklaces were once traded. A curio shop, jewellery shop and tobacconist among others figure in anecdotal reports of “shell necklaces being on sale” – particularly in the 1930s,40s & 50s.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE FULL COLLECTION

George Burrows purchased a collection of shell necklaces from an auction in Launceston 1978/79. It has been suggested that the necklaces "were made by Miss Stewart" whose property was being dispersed at the estate clearance sale. 'Miss Stewart' had a jewellery shop on Brisbane St.

These necklaces are now a part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's collection in Hobart. It is doubtful that 'Miss Stewart' did in fact make the necklaces. On the balance of probability, and the circumstantial evidence, she may well have been a part of the trade in shell necklaces made by Tasmanian Aboriginal women on Bass Strait's Furneaux Islands. She may have also been involved in restringing necklaces made by these women – one necklace in the Burrows Collection seems to suggest this.

The necklaces in the George Burrows shell necklace collection now held by the TMAG are typical of the necklaces that included maireener and other shells that were produced by Aboriginal women on Cape Barren and Flinders Islands in Bass Strait.

There is more to this story so watch this space for developments and if you have any information please leave a comment OR contact the network via Email: shellnecklaces@7250.net

For more information

M M Martin Shell Necklace Enterprise Hobart Tasmania

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGEThis house was The Midwoods with the Midwoods Distillery of 1822 to the lower right. Later it became the Dynnyrne Distillery owner by Robert Lathrop Murray. In the 1840s the complex was rented to the government and it became the Female Factory Nursery. In 1876 the property came into the possession of the Martins. The factory chimney to the rear is that of the Hobart Town Woollen Mill c. 1874. The house and most of the distillery were demolished in 1968. The Woollen Mills having been for many years "Flock" Mills were destroyed in the Hobart bushfires of February 1967 .

INFORMATION SOURCE: Tony Rayner, Historian Hobart - August 2009

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Images courtesy of David Martin, Mary Martin's great grandson

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Emily Creighton Shell Neclace Maker_Cap Barren Island

On Cape Barren Island there is an example of cross-cultural referencing in the work of Emily Creighton who is not Aboriginal but Papuan. She made shell necklaces consistent in form and style to the necklaces being produced on Cap Barren Island by Aboriginal women living there. Emily made necklaces for sale for over 20 years with the tacit approval of the Aboriginal women on the Island up until 1991. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery was purchasing her necklaces for resale from approximately 1986 and up until the early 1990s. They were sold as souvenirs, novelties or curios by the museum and in this sense Emily was participating in the long-standing Bass Strait Islands' 'trade' in shell necklaces.

Emily Creighton was an ethnic Papuan married to a Canadian-born farmer. She and her husband moved to Cape Barren Island from Papua New Guinea in the 1980s as it offered them a haven to raise a family. She was introduced to necklace making by Aboriginal woman living on the Island – Sahara Mansel in particular and others. Through Sahara Mansel she understood that the necklaces had a currency as a 'Sweetheart' gifts – male to female and possibly female to male as well. Further, Emily understood that they were sold to provide money for the purchase of tea and sugar from the trading boats that visited the Island. She was also told of a tobacconist in Brisbane Street Launceston who traded necklaces for tobacco in the 1940s.

In essence Emily Creighton made necklaces for sale in the way the Aboriginal community has done since at least the 1930s and for an unknown time before – for pin money. Emily was a respected community member on Cape Barren Island and she established many longstanding friendships in the Aboriginal community. Indeed, in the 1990s Emily was an external student at the University of Tasmania studying Aboriginal Studies.

Emily Creighton never claimed any Aboriginality or Aboriginal value for her necklaces. However, when they were marketed this became confused, as there was a dependence upon the Aboriginality for such necklaces to gain currency in Tasmania. If there is any problem here, it rests with the institutions selling her work rather than her as the maker and also by a general lack of clarity in respect to cultural identity, and cultural property, on the part of the non-Aboriginal community in Tasmania.

The signification and authority of the maker is an issue in the context of contemporary politics and cultural authority. Emily Creighton is a recent example of a non-Aboriginal person making shell necklaces in Tasmania and a person whose work can be confused with Tasmanian Aboriginal production.

If personal signification and cultural authority is important in the way that it is in the artworld, then Emily Creighton's necklaces are problematic albeit through no fault of her own.

Tasmanian Shell Necklaces

Please click on the image to enlarge

Shell Necklace: Dyed Kelp Shells:Cantharidus irisodontes
Necklace length 168 cms

IMAGE SOURCE: Bett Gallery
369 Elizabeth St. North Hobart TAS 7000
Website: www.bettgallery.com.au

NOTE: I seems that many of the Martin family's necklaces – 'Hobart Necklaces' – were dyed with aniline dyes in various colours nevertheless not all would have been. While many necklaces produced in Tasmania have ambiguous provenance there is increasing evidence to suggest that a great many may not have been made by Aboriginal makers. Indeed, given the number of years the Martin family were involved in necklace making, it is likely that a great many shell necklaces originating in Tasmania, and without clear Aboriginal provenance, may well have been made by a member of the Martin family or Bertie J May sometime between the early 1900 until the 1950s and perhaps beyond.

All would qualify as being ‘Tasmaniana’ but it is likely that a great many are not of Aboriginal origin.

The following information has been supplied by the reference library in Launceston in regard to the manufacture of shell necklaces by non Aboriginal people in Tasmania:

• Arthur Robert Butterfield (born 22 Feb 1867) was a watchmaker, jeweller and optician at 51 Elizabeth Street, Hobart. His private residence was Mortimer Avenue, New Town.
• Bertie J May was a travel goods and souvenir manufacturer – Source Wise’s Post Office Directory 1946, 1948
• Frederick Martin and his wife Mary are listed in the Tasmanian Electoral Rolls 1914 and 1917 as shell necklace makers.
• An article by E. Mawle “Notes on kelp shell Cantharidus irisodontes” in Australian Zoologist Vol 1, no. 6, 1918 p 161-162., describes the harvesting of kelp shells by non-Aboriginal people to make necklaces and hatpins in 1918, – Source Keeping Culture: Aboriginal Tasmania

The following information has also been provided by Marion Sargent, Reference Librarian, Launceston Library, LAUNCESTON, TAS. 7250 – Email: Launceston.Reference@education.tas.gov.au

M M Martin, shell necklace manufacturers:

• It appears that Mrs Mary Maria Martin had the business at 75 Collins Street from about 1906 until 1908.
  
• The Post Office Directories for 1906 and 1907 each have an advertisement for M M Martin Wholesale Shell Necklace Manufacturer, established in 1875.
  
• They had a factory at Cascade Road, Hobart, and a branch factory in Honolulu, Hawaii, which appears to have been run by a son, Frederick Charles Martin (born 1877).
• Thomas and M M Martin were previously listed as fruit growers at Cascade Road (1904-1906).
• From 1909 to 1914 the business was located at 83 Collins Street.
  
• J J Martin was a jeweller at the same address. This was Joseph John Martin.
  
• In the 1903 Electoral Roll he was a jeweller and was living at Cascade Road with many other Martin family members.
  
• In 1915 George Sly had a boot shop there.
• It is thought that the shell business either slowed down or closed during the First World War, as there are no more entries in the Post Office Directories until 1921 to 1923. During that time the business of shell ornament manufacturers was located at 67 Cascade Road, also the private residence of the Martin family.
  
• Mary’s husband Thomas Daniel Martin died aged 80 on 6 January 1923.
  
• The property at Cascade Road appears to have been sold, and Mary and her daughters, Mary May (born 1881) and Ellen Ida Martin (born 1886), moved to 25 Weld Street, Hobart.
• Mary Maria Martin (nee Alexander) died aged 79 on 9 July 1924.
  
• By 1927 her two daughters, Mary May and Ellen, had moved to 12 View Street, Sandy Bay, where the business was carried on under the name of M M Martin & Co, shell manufacturers.
  
• Mary May Martin died on 13 November 1933, aged 51.
  
• Ellen Martin continued with the business until at least 1948, when the last Post Office Directory was published.
  
• Frederick Charles Martin died at 12 View Street in September 1948.
  
• Ellen is not listed in the 1950s phone books. Ellen Ida Martin died in August 1969; she had been living with her nephew Mr J Martin at Blackman’s Bay. – Source: Launceston Library, Civic Square, LAUNCESTON TAS 7250 – 04.08.09

Research

• Marion Sargent: Research Librarian, Launceston Library
• Ray Norman: Research Associate – CAIA Website
  
• Dick Bett : Bett Gallery, 369 Elizabeth St. North Hobart TAS 7000 Gallery Website