Strange club? solomon? samoa? amazon?

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

This club looks a lot better than the many ww2 souvenir short supi Solomon Island club. Although not old looking it does seem to have a patina from frequent handling. Like you My first thoughts were the Solomons. However there is something Amazon about it too. I am finding the Amazon a great source for clubs and an area where forms are yet to be fully appreciated and catalogued. One of the main appeal for the right type of Amazon club is that they do not have to be old to be the " real thing " in a way that we as collectors understand. For the time being I still favour the Solomons. Perhaps daylight pictures might help? The pommel does not suggest Amazon to me.

Tim & Barry

You guys have a very good handle on these types of weapons and very good reference points in literature and imagery...perhaps, and just a long shot, but is it worth comparing the weaving like motifs on the club in question to Solomon Island and South American examples which retain their original woven fibres? And perhaps the engraved tattoo deigns native to each and other regions too?

Just a thought?

Gavin

[Tim Simmons]

Looking again, and realising that it is only 16 inches long. It seems to be more of a dagger. When it you think of a dagger you tend to think of a metal knife to cut and penetrate flesh and muscle but I think a wood dagger is more about blunt force trauma to the face, head and upper torso. I can see similar decorations on Solomon and Amazon weapons but I just have a feeling that this is Amazon. Reference is make to daggers here---

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi...t=anthrotheses

Perhaps it is Guyanese?

[fearn]

I thought Amazon when I first saw it.

Then I misinterpreted it as a baby paddle club, which is quite common in the South Pacific, as Vandoo noted. They seem to be the equivalent of a short sword, if the paddle's a great sword.

Then I looked at it again, and realized it has more of a square cross section rather than a rhomoid (paddle). That swung me back to Amazonian again.

I guess that means I think Tim's right.

F

[fireiceviper]

Update:

Received the paddle today, the color in real life is much more a yellow orange red then a red wood which is how it appears in the pictures i bought it from (post1)

Its also a lot smaller, see included picture in my normal sized hands (for lack of a better word)

The wood still looks like palm but a much finer type then i have here, could also be another type.. (any help would be welcome on the wood type)

The shape is much more like a paddle then seen in the first pictures.

The main difference with the Solomon type is the butt end and the missing of the typical cross form,

So still one big mystery...

[Gavin Nugent]

The more I have looked in books and online and compared to the Amazon clubs in my collections and abroad, I do see this as Santa Cruz islands, IE; Solomon Islands.

Gavin