War club · Polynesian form

A war club from a single piece of hardwood: a long grip turned in rings with a knob at the end, running into a broad, crescent-shaped striking head. At the junction sits a modelled head with a gaping mouth.

The curved, blade-like head with all-over chip carving is the construction used as a war club across the Pacific — on Fiji among others as the gata, the «snake club», with related forms in Tonga and Samoa. Characteristic are exactly the three features that meet here: the ringed grip, the asymmetrically curved head and the dense patterning across the whole surface.

The striking head is covered across its full area in chip carving: zigzag bands, rows of dots and leaf scrolls in several registers, cleanly and evenly cut. The grip carries turned rings with a band of the same scrollwork between them.

Form and decoration are Polynesian, there is no arguing with that. But: the wood is pale and the execution very even — old 19th-century clubs are as a rule dark with patina, often with fibre binding at the grip and use marks on the head. That points here to a 20th-century piece, cleanly and elaborately carved, but not to a collection item from the era of war clubs. No evidence of age, island or workshop exists, and none is claimed.

• Hardwood, worked from one piece
• Ringed grip with knob, crescent striking head
• Modelled head at the junction
• Chip-carved decoration across the whole surface

Good. Carved edges crisp, no chips on the head, grip without cracks.