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club, ball-headed
club, ball-headed
club, ball-headed
Ball-headed war club carved from wood, with iron spike set into the ball. Anishinaabe.
RP: based on style. And presence of otters. Otter iconography classic Anishinaabe.
Read More About This Relative
Wood and metal: CW: maple wood, possible. AC: iron spike.
One piece of carved wood, with a metal spike attached and embedded in the face. Spike attached attached with wooden peg and paper or natural fibre packing. Of weapon weight (i.e.) hardwood, meant to be used.
The ball is carved as a face with slight concavity for the two eyes (round indentations) which may have held glass beads. Mouth or whiskers extend out the sides. The heads of the otters are carved in the round and may also suggest ears for the face on the ball, suggesting a visual pun if that is the case. On one side, there is anthropomorphic form carved as a square with a round head, and a row of 9 joined x's and 4 more on the handle. On verso, are initials F and N or H. with periods: 2 in ink. There is also a row of 9 small x's adjacent to the tail of the otter, and 9 again on the shaft, and 4 again on the handle.
RP notes presence of otters which is distinctly Anishinaabe.
CW: spike might be diagnostic because of the way the metal was forged.
RW: goes for earlier date because of iconography.
Provenance
Déposant: Musée de l'Armée, inventaire 2013.0.162; Précédente collection: Musée de l'Homme (Amérique), inventaire 17.3.10.
"Premières Nations, Collections Royales," at the Musée du quai Branly, February 13 - May 13, 2007; "Ethnographie du Canada, des U.S.A., de la Guyane et du Brésil" (noted in MdqB file -- exhibition?); worn by mannequin n°40 in the Galerie Ethnographique du Musée de l'Artillerie (1877-1917).
Christian Feest, Premières Nations, Collections Royales: Les Indiens des forêts et des prairies d'Amérique du Nord (Paris: musée du quai Branly, 2007), 63.
MdqB file
MOUILLARD Cécile, "La Galerie Ethnographique du Musée d’Artillerie (1877-1917)," Master's Thesis in Art History (Specialty Collections History-Heritage) under the direction of Bartholomew JOBERT, University of Paris IV - Sorbonne, 2005 - 2007.
About This GRASAC Record
Unknown artist, club, ball-headed. Currently in the Musée du quai Branly, 71.1917.3.10 D. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip; GRASAC item id 26253.