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ball-headed club
ball-headed club
ball-headed club
Haudenosaunee wooden club. Ball head gripped by carved talons. Possible motifs include paired feathers, sun, man with feathered headdress and stone axe, woman with club, hunting scene, various animals, cross, whirlpool, and incised lines and chevrons. Dr. Oronhyatekha Ethnology Collection.
GRASAC generated by AN
Read More About This Relative
Wood, relatively light in weight, burl forms the ball
Shaft ends in carved talons gripping the ball of the club.
One one side: paired feathers, sun, man with feathered headdress and stone axe; woman with club; possible hunting scene.
On other side: cross, owl, duck, fish, whirlpool, turtle, chip carved horizontal and vertical lines.
Upper surface of shaft: chevrons, variants of parallel lines of chip carving.
Provenance
F. Barlow Cumberland, Catalogue and Notes of the Oronhyatekha Historical Collection (Toronto: Independent Order of Foresters, 1904), p 67, Item 426. "War Club, ball head in eagle's talons; turtle and crane totems, Six Nations"
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown artist, ball-headed club. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, HD5828. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 1132.
GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips
Ethnography team, Dec 18: Cory Willmott, Trudy Nicks, Anne De Stecher, Ruth Phillips assisted by Tracey Forester