club
- Museum number
- Oc.7612
- Description
-
Club (gugu), of heavy dark red wood. Plain shaft, which has apparently been longer, lower end sawn off. Flat blade, similarly ornamented on both sides with incised designs.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1872)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 152.50 centimetres
-
Width: 33 centimetres
-
Depth: 9 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
One of two items numbered Christy 7142. (Other is head-dress and circlet from Turkey).
-
Hooper (2016:256) notes that this is 'perhaps the largest and heaviest [Fijian club] in existence, would not have been effective in hand-to-hand combat'. He suggests it may be associated with ritual investiture of chiefs.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2016-2017 15 Oct-25 Feb, Norwich, UEA, Sainsbury centre, Fiji: Art and life in the Pacific
2019-2021 15 Dec-2 May, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific
2021-2022 15 Oct-13 Mar, Venice, Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, Power & Prestige: the art of clubs in Oceania
2022 8 Jun-25 Sep, Paris, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Power & Prestige: the art of clubs in Oceania
- Acquisition date
- 1872
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc.7612
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Oc1872C1.7612 (old CDMS no.)
-
Miscellaneous number: Oc1872C0216.3