baton/club
 

Look at this. You know I like this sort of thing. I was at one time thinking of leaving a bid :rolleyes: . The magic Z word was not even mention. It is not that large either. I have two items in the same line not quite as nice as this which is very nice, £330 worth of nice? :eek:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...6488&rd=1&rd=1

From The Days of Sail ?
 

Tim, this is African ?

Y'know it looks to me like a wood carving of an item made of rope ( Bosun's Starter or Colt ) once used by the Bosun's Mate on the old square riggers, American warships and those of the RN for 'encouraging' laggard sailors.

I saw this one, too. Looks really interesting, but I doubt if it's a tribal piece. It looks more as a thing a sailor made in his spare time during the voyage....But that's only my opinion.

Nevertheless, it's beautifully carved. I wouldn't mind having it (but not at that price). :rolleyes:

I thought it far too clever, well practised and above all prestigious for a sailors work killing time. knotting and most of all knot design forms {look at west Africa and Kuba} are not exclusively maritime. I might be pressed into a different opinion :D :rolleyes: .

it does look a lot like a bosun's 'starter' which was a rope end used to 'encourage' a slow seaman to work faster, and was almost a badge of office. these were frequently embellished with fancy marlinspike knotwork and tarred. the monkey's fist at the end was frequently made up around a spherical core object like a musket ball to add 'authority'. the example in the ebay does appear to be similar to such knotwork, but in wood.

here is a related example, as 'starters' are now illegal to use for us poor sailor types, this one is a bell pull for a ships bell.....

http://www.frayedknotarts.com/images...lRope_024L.jpg

Yes indeed. As such I would imagine it is rather rare and hence the price.

I still think this is African. knots are symbolic world wide.