Alexander Hogg (active 1770s–1800s) - The Natche Ceremony in Tongatapu – Tonga – Engraving (18th Century)

This ethnographic scene records one of the most important ceremonies witnessed by Europeans in the Pacific: the Natche, or ʻinasi, on Tongatapu, the main island of the Tongan archipelago. Participants are arranged in orderly rows and circles within a broad clearing bordered by dense tropical forest, conveying both the scale of the gathering and the strict formality of the ritual. Captain James Cook and his men observed the ceremony in July 1777, during his third voyage, when it was held in honour of the son of Paulaho, the Tuʻi Tonga, the sacred paramount chief of Tonga. The ʻinasi was a great first-fruits festival in which yams and other produce were presented to the Tuʻi Tonga, affirming his sacred authority and the bond between the ruler, the gods and the fertility of the land. Cook was so eager to watch the restricted rites that he was required to bare his shoulders and loosen his hair, in keeping with Tongan custom, and his detailed account is one of the most valuable early descriptions of the ceremony. The image goes back to drawings made by John Webber, the official artist of the third voyage. It was published in London by Alexander Hogg, probably for George William Anderson's A New, Authentic and Complete Collection of Voyages Round the World (1784–1786).

Alexander Hogg was a London bookseller and publisher who worked from the King's Arms in Paternoster Row from the 1770s until the early nineteenth century. He became known for ambitious illustrated works sold in weekly numbers, through which subjects such as world history, geography and exploration reached a broad and eager readership. His popular editions of Captain Cook's voyages appeared shortly after the official accounts and offered many readers their first images of the islands, peoples and ceremonies of the Pacific. Today the engraved plates from Hogg's publications are appreciated as evocative records of the age of discovery.

Artist or Maker: Alexander Hogg
Dimensions: Approximately 35 cm x 24 cm.
Medium: Engraving.
Date: 18th Century.
SKU: PLA-0930-2

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