Two Old African Clubs

Item RF03  

This Item was Sold for $125


Similar artifacts for sale are often found on the African Artifacts web page. 

Historical Pricing information for this item and similar artifacts can be found at: Historical Artifact Prices.


This item is a pair of two older clubs recently acquired from an estate sale. They were sold as African clubs, but they stringly resemble Polynesian ethnographic items. Both clubs bear remnants of old collection tags.

The larger club has the greatest amount of workmanship. It resembles a shortened spear end of an Australian Aboriginal punishment spear. The central section is carved to include a narrow central shaft surrounded by 5 clusters of sharpened barbs. Most of the barbs are intact, but there is a single barb missing and a few others have a sliver missing from the edge. The color is natually very dark with a fine patina, indicating that this item has good age. The overall length of this club or spear end is 81 cm and it weighs 258 grams.

The smaller club has a round shaft with one end expanded into an elongated diamond pattern with a rectangular cross section. There is an intentional hole, shaped somewhat like a keyhole, running through the center of the expanded head. This club is decorated with hot poker markings. The overall length is 51 cm and the weight is 130 grams.



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