Club "gata" · Fidji Islands · ID: 3034551
not available anymore
Provenance
Dion van Hal, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSize
L: 90,5 cm
L: 35.6 inch
Description
wood, brown patina, the underside of the top bark-like roughed up, min. dam., cracks, traces of usage;
these clubs represent the wide open jaws of the pacific Boa snake “gata”. A characteristic of the finer “gata” clubs are the roughly carved parallel grooves on the upper inner side. These are deliberately made by carving with stone tools into the growing ironwood sapling before it is harvested and fashioned into a club. The sharpe edge of this club was designed to break bones.
Comparing literature
Meyer, Anthony J.P., Ozeanische Kunst, Vol. II, Köln 1995, p. 473, ill. 546