N. American club.
 

Just want to show my latest Great Plains club. A nice old one there is some fragility where the horse hair is attached but not enough to effect collecting appeal in my opinion. Oh and some bead loss on the haft which could only have been a few originally.

Looks a nice old piece Tim, well done. Can you tell if the stitching is done with sinew ?

Regards.

Hi Tim:

Any chance this is a Native American drumstick. I know that the "beating" end of the stick was usually covered with hide but perhaps someone went all the way on this one. It looks the right shape and length for a drumstick. Just a thought.

Ian.

Possible drum stick? I do not think so as the head is really quite heavy. Here next to a floppy head club. It is all sinew. It does make me question the floppy head piece. Which is all sinew sewn. The beads around the head are on sinew but the beads around the haft and at the horse hair are on a thread, which is remarkably clean but that does not necessarily need something is old or not.

Thinking about drum sticks. I can imagine heavy rigid beaters if the percussion instruments were of a wood shell structure, like hollow log drums. I do not think that type of drum is used on the American Plains?

It seems a bit unlikely this item could be a drumstick, here are some extracts for reference, from the useful book "Indian & Eskimo Artifacts of North America" by Charles Miles...

There not drum sticks but also not full combat club weapons. There are far more about status however you could easily wack an underling. With some African examples.