Solomon Island club

[Tim Simmons]

Although on my beam ends I have managed to score this rather nice looking club. Not huge 22 inches approx, which is the size as the two Amazon examples shown. I am only posting one picture but from the rest I believe there is some age to the piece, a very good chance that it is pre- WW2 . Other pictures seem to show some neglect to the wood. I am no wood expert but I have found that if wood has had some age and patina hidden by neglect it can be retrieved unless severely damaged. I will do some follow up when I have it. Interesting that headhunting increased on European contact.

Info link.

http://australianmuseum.net.au/headh...islands-part-2

Headhunting in Roviana area stopped abruptly in the early 20th century as a result of colonial intervention. In 1909 Charles Morris Woodford, Resident Commissioner in New Georgia reported that headhunting had become largely ‘a thing of the past’.