[Tim Simmons]

One for the lurking Oceanic club collectors that sometimes contribute. Just acquired this interesting piece. 46cm long shown here with the sellers pictures. Although they show the whole thing quite well, the most interesting bits are not clear.
I thought long and hard about this piece even though it was not expensive and researched for sometime before going for it. The first thing that stands out, the bark still being on the wood which is not commonly found on most Fijian Ulas we encounter {not that Fiji is the only place or island that uses throwing clubs} secondly the emerging lenticels on the bark surface could be off-putting until I found that there are many shrub/trees that have lenticel bark in the indo-pacific. The seller mentions the mother of pearl inlay {assuming it is shell } to me from the not very clear pictures looks like Tridacna mother of pearl which I thought a good sign. The question is what do you think? especially when an artefact does not conform to a market standard {as collectors these things are a commodity} In this post I shall add more information which might or might not help seek an origin while I wait for the club to arrive to have a better look.