Belkov P. “Coral necklace”, or the Red and the White in the Cook’s collections of the MAE RAS

Pavel Belkov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-5049-9888
E-mail: belkov@kunstkamera.ru

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ABSTRACT. This article is a continuation of one of the episodes of research on the reconstruction of the Cook’s collections of the Kunstkamera, the results of which were presented in the author’s book “Essays on the History of the Early Oceanian Collections of the MAE” (2015). The immediate reason for writing this article was the discovery of a Hawaiian necklace from the Cook-Behm’s collection among the unnumbered objects. Earlier, based on the study of museum documents of the late 19th – early 20th century, the author concluded that this item had perished many years before the first registration under the modern system at the end of the 19th century. The finding of this item in itself serves as a proof of the previously stated propositions. On the other hand, this finding stimulated the raising of new questions, in particular, questions related to the “dark places” in the so-called Behm’s Inventory. In particular, we are talking about two articles in which items appear under old Russian names “kоrolki” and “biser”. Now these lines, like messages encrypted by time, can be deciphered with greater certainty. In any case, one can explain why items of the same class, necklaces, were not combined into one entry. The decisive role here is played by two contrasts, in color (red and white) and in shape (beads and pendants). According to modern classification, “korolki” (“kinglets”?) are the red beads, and “biser” are Russian monistos. Thanks to this differentiation of meanings, it becomes possible to look for other, not yet identified, objects from the category of “different biser” of Cook origin collections of the MAE RAS.

KEYWORDS: MAE RAS, Kunstkamera, Cook’s collections, Hawaii, necklaces, Erythrina sandwicensis

FOR CITATION: Belkov P. “Coral Necklace”, or the Red and the White in the Cook’s Collections of the MAE RAS. Kunstkamera. 2023. 3(21): 118–126. (In Russian). doi 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-3(21)-118-126

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-3(21)-118-126
УДК 069.5:39

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