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Ceremonial Janiform Club, Malakula Island, Vanuatu image 1
Ceremonial Janiform Club, Malakula Island, Vanuatu image 2
Ceremonial Janiform Club, Malakula Island, Vanuatu image 3
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN COLLECTION
Lot 12

Ceremonial Janiform Club, Malakula Island, Vanuatu

21 November – 5 December 2024, 12:00 PST
Online, Los Angeles

Sold for US$8,960 inc. premium

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Ceremonial Janiform Club, Malakula Island, Vanuatu

Wood
Height 39in (99cm)

Provenance
Nicolai Michoutouchkine Collection (1929-2010), Port Vila, Vanuatu
Todd Barlin, Oceanic Arts Australia, Sydney
Theodore Bruce, Sydney, 8 August 2015
Private Collection, United States

Nicolai Michoutouchkine, a Russian from Vanuatu, was a painter, artist, designer, and collector of Pacific artifacts. He was co-founder with Aloi Pilioko of the Michoutouchkine-Pilioko Foundation and of the Museum of Oceanic Art based in Port Vila, Vanuatu

Cf. Brunt, Peter and Nicholas Thomas, Art in Oceania: A New History, Yale University Press, 2013, p. 161 for a similar club.

As noted by Lissant Bolton (Ibid. pp. 161-2), "Part of the Forster collection now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, is a club [similar to the club presented here] collected at Port Sandwich, Malakula, Vanuatu, in July 1774 [by Captain Cook]. Kirk Huffman identifies it as a 'rare type of high-status club' that signifies links between south-east Malakula and west Ambrym, north Ambrym and south Pentecost. Although the club was very likely made where it was collected, it appears that this, one of the first objects ever collected by Europeans in island Melanesia, was an item in a ritual network that linked a number of adjacent islands and regions. This kind of club could be used as a weapon, but also in ceremonies and as a dance club. It was above all an object that related to a complex system of status enhancement: it would have been owned by a high-ranking man, and would have signified his status as someone to be treated with respect."

Carved in hardwood, with unique Janus faces below a crescent-shaped top, possibly representing the Men's Secret Societies in Vanuatu; fine dark patina with reddish undertones and wear indicative of significant age and indigenous use.

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