LOT 2791

Oceanic Wooden Massim War Club

TROBRIAND ISLANDS, EARLY-MID 20TH CENTURY A.D.

29 1/4 in. (783 grams, 74.2 cm).

Paddle-shaped club with carved scroll decoration at the top of the blade.

From the private collection of Frank Hurley (1885-1962), Australian photographer, filmmaker and adventurer.
From the collection of Mr Carlos Bahamonde, Manchester, UK.

Cf. a similar massim club in the collection of the Bowers Museum, inv.no.2015.17.7.

The Trobriand Islands are coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. The Massim clubs were both for ceremonial use and fighting, and were decorated with scrolls and abstract snake designs. Some of them were connected to sorcery: when a shaman pointed such a club towards someone, it was a death sentence.

Frank Hurley worked on Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1914-1917, photographing the Endurance whilst being marooned with the rest of the crew. In the 1920s, he mounted various expeditions to Papua New Guinea, which involved filmmaking and collecting on behalf of the Australian Museum and himself. He stored a number of artefacts in a log cabin at Whale Beach, which became an exotic setting for Sydney's glitterati attending raucous parties there in the 1930s. Selling the property after the war, he left the contents of the cabin, which were kept by the new owners, who moved to London in 1959.