Birdhead club 'porowa ra maru'
Carl Scharf, Hamburg, Germany
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany (1902)
Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany (1969)
The club was part of a larger collection that the Hamburg merchant Carl Scharf donated to the Linden-Museum Stuttgart in 1902. Scharf was co-owner of the trading company Scharf & Kayser, which gradually took over the company Societé commerciale de l’Océanie, based in Pape’ete, Tahiti, from 1876. The majority of the donation consisted of objects from the Marquesas and other Polynesian islands, but other regions of Oceania were also represented.
Description
wood, handwritten collection no. ‘L.II88 / I5I - C. Scharf - New Caledonia’, beautiful age patina
The distinctively shaped ‘porowa ra maru’ were prestigious objects created for use by chiefs. The clubs symbolized wealth and high rank.
The thin, delicate tips of the beaks are extremely fragile and would have broken easily if the clubs were used in combat. It is therefore likely that they were primarily used for ceremonial purposes.