This club is a well-known type from the island of Tonga. Carved out of hard, reddish-brown wood. The battle club is in the shape of an elongated paddle, with a thickened, emphasised central ridge, and is separated from its tapered shaft by two lancet shaped, transverse, flat, thick, squared bars. The entire object is made from one piece.
The geometric relief decoration consists of triangles carefully composed within each other and in larger stripes, and these again are of alternating straight and zig-zag lines.
An unusually finely crafted piece, with good usage patina, some small areas broken off at the upper edges (old cracks) and fine, small cracks on one side of the shaft (one original and previously restored). 19th century (circa 1840). L: 99 cm.
This interesting object was acquired in the 1960s in Papeete, on the island of Tahiti. In the 1980s, the purchaser wanted to know more details concerning his battle club from Tahiti and contacted Anthony J.P. Meyer, a renowned expert on Oceanic art in Paris. In autumn of 1983, Anthony J.P. Meyer answered in a letter:
‘.... Thank you for your photos, and as I suspected, it is a club from Tonga, characteristic and absolutely beautiful. It represents a late type, created around 1840, but of very fine quality, which for this period seems unusual. In any event, it is an object which would enhance the wall of any collector....’ The letter in English is available. (ME)

Provenance: Austrian Private Collection.

Lit.: ‘Art and Artefacts of the Pacific, Africa and the Americas. The James Hooper Collection’ by Stephen Phelps, ill. 730, 731; ‘Ozeanische Kunst’ by Anthony J. P. Meyer, ill. 555.