Coconut shell box

This artefact is recorded in the Raffles Museum’s Annual Report (1909) as a coconut shell container for fish bait. Its use, whether as a lure or to store bait, is not specified. Objects often had multiple uses. Cerruti mentions another use for a coconut shell in his book, My Friends the Savages (1908): ‘…cracked a coconut in half and, cleaning it well out, I dipped the shell into the bed of [the] stream and drew it out again full of water and sand. I examined the contents with great care and found a few grains of gold in the alluvion [sic – alluvium]!’

See related items

Talismanic box

Octagonal talismanic box

Coconut shell bowl

A hat in a box with coconut husk support