A RARE RARATONGA MASSUE - POLE CLUB

Estimated Value:

4.000 € - 6.000 €

Result:

42.735 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

Cook Islands
L. 224 cm
Akatara, long grip with an oval cross-section tapering in the lower part with an I of two fish bones, the finely serrated blade placed above a motif of two stylised eyes. Dark and shiny patina.
Important Bavarian private collection, acquired at Christie's Paris, 6.12.2005, lot 60.
Massue from the Cook Islands, with a head carved in one piece in the shape of a spearhead with serrated edges, are known as "Akatara". Pre-contact examples carved from stone are extremely rare and are among the finest of all Polynesian weapons. According to Harding (in Sotheby's, New York, 14 May 2010, p. 48): "Originally, the 'akatara were fighting weapons, but when Europeans came into contact with them, they were used primarily for ceremonial purposes. They were objects of great prestige, imbued with the mana (spiritual power) of their makers and the warriors who possessed them. The ancient craftsmen of the Cook Islands had only stone axes at their disposal, so even making the crude shape of the club was a considerable feat. Then began the laborious process of shaping and polishing the wood often with finer stone tools, pieces of coral and a rasp of shark skin." He continues (ibid): "The beauty and superb workmanship of these weapons appealed to early visitors to the islands, and most of the 'akatara' now in museums and in private hands were collected in a relatively short period from the 1820s onwards. Evangelists from the London Missionary Society arrived in the Cook Islands in 1821 and destroyed most of the 'heathen idols' (Harding, 1994). Weapons, on the other hand, were often sent back to Britain as examples of native craftsmanship, and some were on display for many years at the LMS Museum in Blomfield Street, Finsbury. "The 'Akatara clubs were traditionally associated with the island of Rarotonga and are mentioned in the oral traditions of that island going back many generations. The shoulder decoration with the eye motif resembles the eyes of the figurines and staff gods of Rarotonga. Further evidence is a photograph from around 1910 showing Rarotonga warriors with 'Akatara weapons'. The well-known Baxter print of the Rarotonga chief Te Po (1837) shows a very different weapon; possibly a simple misunderstanding by the engraver, who certainly never visited the Cook Islands. In 1777 Captain Cook discovered the island of Atiu, and one of his men noted that here 'the clubs were about six feet long or more, of hard black wood, pointed at the end, but much broader, with nicely ground edge and neatly polished'. It seems likely, therefore, that the 'akatara were used on both Rarotonga and Atiu. When Stephen Savage took his photograph of the warriors on Atiu around 1910, the clubs were of simple shape. On Mangaia Island, the southernmost of the Cook Group, there were also staff clubs with a distinctive shape (see Harding, 1997).

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