Fiji before Civilization … Dawn of Civilization … Advance of Civilization … Glorious Result of Civilization

A$750 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Crystal Palace, London : Machinery Department, c.1879]. Cotton handkerchief, 570 x 580 mm, lithograph printed in brown and red; old fold lines and some insignificant toning and spotting; a very well preserved example. These satirical cotton handkerchiefs lampooning the effects of the introduction of Western civilisation into a primitive society in the South Seas were printed in colour in the machinery department of Crystal Palace in 1879 and sold as novelty souvenirs to visitors. Other examples are known which have a panoramic view of the Crystal Palace as the central image. A number of printing presses were in operation in the machinery department, striking off impressions of newspapers, and novelty items such as the present handkerchief, which no doubt belonged to a visitor who paid for the privilege to have his own printed souvenir, and witness at first hand the advances in printing on display. ( Yale Center for British Art , catalogue entry for a handkerchief with a variant motif). The Fiji Islands had become a British crown colony in October 1874, and at each corner of the handkerchief is a stylised Union Jack. The friezes of humorous illustrations along each of the four sides represent the four different stages of the civilising process: ‘Fiji before Civilization’ is dominated by a terrifying horned cannibal giant rising from the sea and devouring humans; ‘Dawn of Civilization’ depicts Britannia dispensing articles of Western clothing, utilitarian objects and books; ‘A

• Binding: Hardcover

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