- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Club with cylindrical wooden shaft. [JC [OPS Move] 06/09/2016]
- Long description
- Club with cylindrical wooden shaft which flares towards the distal end, where it is squared off. It has an expanded ovoid butt with a large restriction, tied with coloured textile. [JC [OPS Move] 06/09/2016]
- Person
- Field collector Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville
- Field collector HMS Dart
- PRM source Henry Boyle Townshend Somerville
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 12/1891?, uncertain
- Date collected
- Betwen June and December 1890 or between June and December 1891 ?
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1902
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Textile, Process Carved, Process Dyed, Process Tied
- Dimensions
- Diameter: max 55 mm, Length: max 930 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1902.21.13
- Research and responses
Somerville served on HMS Dart in a survey of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in 1890 and 1891 (in both cases from June to December). The material from Vanutu in this collection was, thus, presumably collected during this survey. See his ‘Notes on Some Islands of the New Hebrides’ (based on a paper entitled ‘Ethnological Notes on the New Hebrides’ read at the meeting of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on 21 February 1893), in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXIII (1894), pp. 2–21, and ‘Ethnological Notes on New Hebrides’ (based on a paper entitled ‘Ethnological Notes on the New Hebrides’ read at the meeting of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland on 9 January 1894), in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. XXIII (1984), 363–93; see also his The Chart-Makers (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1928). [JC 26 2 2003]
Further items to explore
1884.13.49Wooden dance club in the glaive form with incised decoration across the blade. This features a conventionalised repeat fish head pattern, geometric triangle design and a more naturalistic depiction of fish and a bird near the handle. The handle base ends in a two tiered conical form with a blunt point. [BS [OPS Move] 26/07/2016]1884.13.49
1906.78.11Dark wooden throwing club with an almost straight shaft and an ovoid head. Treated surface. [ASh [OPS move] 26/05/2016]1906.78.11
1934.64.12Club with broad curved blade and squared off spur. The handle is bound with sennit and hair and the butt is tapered with a bulbous tip. [BS [OPS Move] 05/10/2016]1934.64.12
1884.12.60Wood club with curved and pointed blade. The shaft, which is oval in section, expands into the flattened blade which curves 90 degrees and extends to a point. The outer edge of the blade is a right angle. The bottom of the shaft is decorated with engraved zigzags within longitudinal grooves and there is an expanded and tiered triangular butt. [JC [OPS Move] 14/10/2016]1884.12.60
1938.23.55Club with large, flat head, convex top and bottom edges. [JC [OPS Move] 07/09/2016]1938.23.55
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1896.33.45Head made of coconut fibre and clay. A protruding shell on each cheek bone, imitating boars tusks. Plant fibre hair. Painted red, black, and white. A concentric diamond pattern on the back of the head, and dotted pattern around the eyes. [BH [OPS Move] 6/4/2017]1896.33.45
1896.33.15Wooden hair comb with feather tassle at one end. [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 16/12/2004]1896.33.15