ḥawʼiɬmis (Club)
About this object
History of use
Possibly a chief's ceremonial club (ḥawʼiɬmis), or possibly a fish or sea mammal club (ʔacḥyʼakw). For comparable Northwest Coast clubs with a ball-and-hand style carving, see 2791/9, A4115, A4379, and A6134.
Narrative
The club’s comparatively detailed rendering of knuckles, fingertips, and wrist bone, as well as its almost perfectly rounded sphere, shares a stylistic sensibility with Nuu-chah-nulth masks, rattles, and other carvings of similar age. Thought to have been collected in 1778 during Captain James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific (1776-1780), from Nuu-chah-nulth people in Yuquot (Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound), on the West coast of Vancouver Island. The club passed through a number of English private collections from 1783 to 1967, at which point it was sold at auction in London, ending up in a New York collection. In 2012 the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts donated the funds for MOA to purchase the club from a New York auction, for display in its permanent collection.
Specific techniques
Materials