Cassandra D'Cruz
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Lot 28
WARRIOR'S CLUB, MARQUESAS ISLANDS
13 November 2018, 11:00 EST
New YorkUS$25,000 - US$35,000
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WARRIOR'S CLUB, MARQUESAS ISLANDS
u'u
length 42 1/2in (108cm)
Provenance
French Private Collection
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Steven Hooper notes, "the u'u club appears to have been the standard weapon and staff of warriors. The form was recorded during Cook's second-voyage visit and nineteenth-century engravings often show them. Both sides of the clubhead are carved similarly, with minor differences, showing a series of faces of different kinds looking in all directions. Gell [A. Gell, Art and agency, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998, p. 191)] argues that these designs, on human bodies as tattoo, or on objects, represent atua (gods) in a tutelary and watchful guardian mode. The club is made from tough and heavy ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia) called toa, also the name for warrior. The rich dark patina was achieved by steeping the club in taros swamps and by polishing with coconut oil." (Pacific Encounters - Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts, The British Museum Press, London, 2006, p. 163)
Most likely stone carved, the present work is of diminutive size; hence most likely a very early example. The rounded domed head of the club is carved out in a convex shape that tapers outward over the faces on each side, each with atua faces projecting as the eyes and nose, a trapezoidal cross-section at the nose projects out on each side, below which are faces delicately raised above the surface; the slender, flattened club gradually becomes circular down the shaft and terminates in a saddle-form butt; rich, dark patina with wear throughout, indicative of significant age and use.
length 42 1/2in (108cm)
Provenance
French Private Collection
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Steven Hooper notes, "the u'u club appears to have been the standard weapon and staff of warriors. The form was recorded during Cook's second-voyage visit and nineteenth-century engravings often show them. Both sides of the clubhead are carved similarly, with minor differences, showing a series of faces of different kinds looking in all directions. Gell [A. Gell, Art and agency, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998, p. 191)] argues that these designs, on human bodies as tattoo, or on objects, represent atua (gods) in a tutelary and watchful guardian mode. The club is made from tough and heavy ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia) called toa, also the name for warrior. The rich dark patina was achieved by steeping the club in taros swamps and by polishing with coconut oil." (Pacific Encounters - Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts, The British Museum Press, London, 2006, p. 163)
Most likely stone carved, the present work is of diminutive size; hence most likely a very early example. The rounded domed head of the club is carved out in a convex shape that tapers outward over the faces on each side, each with atua faces projecting as the eyes and nose, a trapezoidal cross-section at the nose projects out on each side, below which are faces delicately raised above the surface; the slender, flattened club gradually becomes circular down the shaft and terminates in a saddle-form butt; rich, dark patina with wear throughout, indicative of significant age and use.
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