[FIJI] Studio portrait of a man known as “Cannibal Tom”. Suva, 1906.

Printing-out-paper print photograph, 202 x 150 mm; inscribed in negative ‘Protected / O. J. Le Faivre 19.11.06’; verso with oval wet stamp worded ‘More copies of this / Photo can be had from / Le Faivres Art Studioes [sic] / SUVA, FIJI’; superb clarity and tonal range; a couple of nicks to the left-hand edge and a few small tiny marks at upper left, else in very good condition (unmounted).

Cannibal Tom (real name unknown) was a popular subject for photographers and postcard publishers, who often described him in their captions with the epithet “last of the cannibals” or similar. In this image he is posed in front of Suva photographer Le Faivre’s suitably exotic painted backdrop, holding a club of the spurred or gunstock type, nggata. He is wearing an elaborate human hair wig, and a pendant cowrie shell ornament.