Pre-contact Maori whalebone club

[fearn]

I'm also skeptical about a pre-contact age on that club. However, I think it came from the south Pacific, not the Pacific Northwest.

Here's my reasoning:

1. Pre-Contact vs. Post-Contact: The carving looks like it was done with metal tools. Granted, I haven't done any carving on whale bone (for the obvious reason of not having any), but Pre-Contact lines would have been ground and chipped in with stone tools. This tends to make for round bottoms and smooth edges. If you can imagine free-handing those circular incisions using (perhaps) a stick and some sand, or an awl made from something, then you'll see what the issue is. With a metal drill, it's a trivial figure to make. Ditto with the edges around the mouth. Now, if you can see work marks that makes you think someone laboriously incised all that stuff, then Pre-Contact looks more likely.

2. South Pacific vs. North Pacific: to me, it looks like Polynesian work. My thought is that in the early days, a number of Polynesians, including Maori, served on the whaling boats. I could see such a sailor making this club on-board or afterward, using some bone from one of their catches.

That's my 0.0002 pence,

F

[Tim Simmons]

Hmmm, back on the made by saliors. From your pictures I cannot see much smoothness from handling. That does not have to mean much. I can see the carving of the face fitting many NW pacific masks. I could see melanesian style carving but the form of the whole thing and the overall shape of the handle part do seem so very similar to many NW Pacific pieces. I think you sould send pics to museums in London and Washington DC.

P.S. I have to say that the quality of the carving suggests a specialist or an artist, at the very least somebody accomplished and used to balancing design.

[Spunjer]

It reminds me of Ku or Kukailimoku, Hawaiian war god...

[Tim Simmons]

Ku has a fierce mouth?

This really is something to get stuck into. These pictures which are very helpful in showing Hawaiian sculpture outside of the really flashy museum pieces in so many standard publications. The pictures are from "Old Hawai'i. an ethnography of Hawai'i in the 1880s - ethnologisches museum Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 2007" Cleary the whale bone club is not Hawaiian work. Do not see it as other polynesian work either. An exception is Fiji which is equally melanesia. I could add more pictures of decorative sculpture all strongly hawaiian and far away from the work on the club.

The figure standing on the ring like object is an armband.

[Ron Anderson]

Thanks for your responses, everyone.

Sorry to get back so late, but the time difference means I sleep while you work, and vice versa.

I'll take measurements of the item and post them, hopefully today.

I agree it isn't likely to be Maori but I really don't want to infuse the debate with my quite uninformed conjectures. I was surprised by the NW America connection but the form of the club is quite strikingly similar to those examples. All I can say is my club is better artwork than those shown here. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you are right Tim.

The collection it came from included a lot of stuff from NW America, predominantly innuit. Some amazing fossik, walrus ivory sculpture and implements. Same truly outstanding stuff.

So that is entirely possible.

For me, this thing resembles the Easter Island heads, which may mean nothing.

It's worth noting when handing this club that it feels well balanced. It is weighty and substantial.

The collection it came from really was an exceptional collection of ethnographic artefacts. It came from an American - Lillian Hoffman who lived in Australia. Famously eccentric collector with a philanthropic bent who was planning on setting up a museum at one point to house her collection> It seems she collected from around the world.

I don't think this came from a sailor because she was in the habit of buying artefacts, sometimes at high prices, with the intention of preserving the cultures she was buying from, and supporting the arts in those cultures. She was conspicuously wealthy.

The auctioneer didn't know much about the club and called it Maori. I'm fairly certain he was unsure about the item. The age of it of course was indisputable. It kind of looked Maori. And it was one of hundreds of items he had to identify after her death.

We had a chat. He didn't know what the club was. But I think it's an exceptional one, whatever it is. I think this is an authentic piece of something.

[VANDOO]

I HAD MISPLACED SOME PICTURES OF THESE CLUBS BUT FOUND THEM IN A OLD POST BY RUEL 7/21/2004 "ETHNO WEAPONS IN SCOTLAND PART 2" THE CLUB UNDER GLASS IN THE DISPLAY TABLE IS FROM THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM GLASGOW UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, TAKEN BY RUEL. THE OTHERS ARE ONES FROM AN OLD BOOK AND SOME WERE COLLECTED BY CAPTIAN COOK SO THEY DO GO BACK BEFORE RECORDED HISTORY ON THE N.W. COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.

[Ron Anderson]

Hi Vandoo

Thanks, that's extremely helpful.

I am strongly convinced of the case that this is a North West American, Nootka Sounds or somesuch, piece. Very old.

Look at the second club in the second picture you're just sent. Note the concentric circles that mirror the ones on my club.

I must say, it's a surprise. But I can't say I'm unhappy with that outcome. Though I'm still looking for some good Maori clubs.

I have to say, I had doubts all along about this being Maori.

The other thing strongly indicating its origins is the fact that there were so many other NW American items on auction. There were no Maori items, and the only other clubs were 3 Fijian wooden clubs. And I bought those too.

I'd like to ask this question: are you sure these were cut by metal tools? I have marine ivory tools, innuit, from this region (bought at the same auction incidentally) that I'm pretty sure could do this job just as precisely as metal tools. These are strong, hardy, precise instruments. In fact, in that part of the world marine ivory frequently replaced metal in kitchen utensils and the like. And I think still does to some extent. The tools I have include bow drills and other such tools, entirely made out of walrus ivory, and they are very, very strong indeed.

Will post pictures of these tools soon.

Regards
Ron