The Torres Strait Collections of A.C. Haddon. A Descriptive Catalogue

London, British Museum Publications, 1984. Quarto, 109, [3] pages plus 79 full-page plates containing photographic reproductions of 450 of the 712 artefacts in the catalogue. Cloth lightly marked; boards a little bowed; edges lightly foxed; trifling signs of use; overall, an excellent copy with the lightly bumped and creased dustwrapper. The only material 'acquired from the Torres Strait Islanders during the nineteenth century . [that was] systematically collected and adequately documented is that obtained by Professor A.C. Haddon in 1888-9 and 1898' (page 38). In fact, Haddon's collections of Torres Strait artefacts taken back to Britain 'are among the most comprehensive and well-documented ever obtained from one particular ethnic group', and the findings of his 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition 'proved to be a turning point in the history of anthropology' (dustwrapper blurb).