Update Our ticketing, donations, and membership sales portal is down for scheduled maintenance on the afternoon of 4/11.
A heavy wooden club - or bovai - with incised carvings over entire body, likely from Fiji. The club is slightly curved from the base of the handle to the head. The club is probably from Fiji, although there are similiar examples from Samoa and Tonga as well. The club would have been used in hand-to-hand combat.
clubs (weapons)
wood (plant material)
Club
Stephen Phillips House (Salem, Mass.),
E47,150
FD314
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3611
http://new-guinea-tribal-art.com/wp/index.php/2011/09/29/fijian-war-club
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and events
