- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Wooden club of dark hardwood, with bound shaft and carved head. [SM 19/03/2007]
- Long description
- Wooden club of dark hardwood, with bound shaft and carved head. The shaft is bound with lengths of plant leaf which are secured with a knot. The head is flat and triangular shaped. It is carved with a geometric pattern of lines. These patterns were meant to resemble butterfly fish. A length of plant fibre rope is knotted to the handle. [SM 19/03/2007]
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 06/1876
- Date collected
- By June 1876
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Plant Leaf, Material Plant Fibre, Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Knotted, Process Decorated
- Dimensions
- Length: max 940 mm, Width: max 148 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.12.140 PR Cat other PR nos: 2907
- Research and responses
see F Clunie 'Fijian Weapons and Warfare' 1977 Fiji Museum, Suva, Bulletin of the Fiji Museum no.2 and R. Ewins, Fijian Artefacts: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection' Australia 1982. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
The sale at which this was purchased was announced in The Times, no. 29,238 (Thursday 25 April 1878), p. 16, col. a: 'To Collectors and Keepers of Museums. FOR SALE by Public AUCTION, at the London Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing-lane, on Monday, 29th April, 1878, a collection of WARLIKE IMPLEMENTS, comprising spears, bows and arrows, clubs, &c.; also dresses, charms, idols, &c. from the Fiji and Solomon Islands. Catalogues and all particulars of DEVITT and HETT, Brokers, 16, Mark-lane.' [JC 6 11 2014]
Search terms: Weapon, Figure, Dance, Ritual and Ceremonial, Status, Club, Fish Figure, Dance Accessory, Ceremonial Object