19th Century Fijian Serrated War Club

A 19th century Fijian paddle shaped war club ( Culucula), the board blade with serrations to the outside rim. The blade surface with incised notching and with stylized floral rondels. Some losses evident. This broad-bladed club is of the form known as culacula, a name which May be an allusion to the resemblance between the club's projecting wings and serrated edges and the sharp, spiked protuberances of the culacula, a kind of sea crab (Clunie, Fijian Weapons and warfare, Suva, 1977, p. 55). The culacula club is very closely related to the kinikini, and several early 19th century accounts refer to it specifically as a chief or priest's club, which was carried as a symbol of rank and authority; in 1820, the Russian naval officer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen noted that 'These paddles are the property only of chiefs, and are perhaps a mark of distinction.' (Debenham, ed., the voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas, 1819-1821, volume II, Abingdon, 2010, p. 307). The origin of the culucula and the closely related kinikini club Clunie notes that they are 'Said to be Tongan or Samoan in origin, but they were certainly widely used in the islands and coastal parts of Fiji [?]' (Clunie, Fijian Weapons and warfare, Suva, 1977, p. 55), whilst mills States that, like the kolo (see lot 14), both the culacula and kinikini 'Appear to be of Fijian origin' (mills, Tufunga Tongi 'Akau: Tongan club carvers and their Arts, unpublished PhD thesis, 2008, vol. 1, p. 251). Mills also notes that culacula is a Fijian name without meaning in Tongan (ibid., p. 153), although used there to refer to clubs of this form. Regardless of the form's origin, the culacula were certainly carried by both Fijian chiefs and priests and Tongan chiefs. This example was collected by a military officer whilst travelling in the South Pacific in the 1940s. Provenance: Private Collection Hawkes bay, 47.24 in. length