A Superb Old Fijian Club with Maori Designs 19th Century Polynesian Art 

A Superb Old Fijian Club with Maori Designs 19th Century Polynesian Art 

This fine old Culacula  Club is from the Fiji Islands part of Melanesia in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It is a very rare example of a Fijian Club that was carved by a Maori Artist.

According to Hamson in his catalogue “By Decent; Oceanic Art from old Collections 2019 Paris

” This unusual Fijian Club with Maori designs belongs to a small corpus of objects probably carved by one Maori man living in Fiji in the mid-19th Century. William Oldman illustrates one in his The Oldman Collection of Polynesian Artefacts plate 57. Steven Phelps illustrates four examples from the James Hooper Collection in Art and Artefacts of The Pacific, Africa & the Americas. In the publication Fijian Weapons & Warfare 1977 by Fergus Clunie illustrates a fine Totokia  Club with Maori designs and remarks that he believes it was almost certainly the work of a Maori Sailor shipwrecked of marooned in Fiji in the 19th Century”

With this much information, it might be possible to trace back through old records the name of this Maori Master Carver.

Carved from a single piece of hardwood and the incised designs were done by an artist of great skill.

Provenance:  The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

I first went to Papua New Guinea in 1985 for an adventure & what I found was that I really enjoyed being with the people of New Guinea, over the next 38 years I spent extensive time spent collecting and documenting traditional art & ceremonies in remote areas of Papua New Guinea & West Papua, The Solomon Islands & Vanuatu & the other Pacific Islands countries. During these travels, I made major collections of New Guinea & Oceanic Art for major Museums and Public Art Galleries

I was honoured by being in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine for the collections I made for The Museum of African & Oceanic Art Paris in1996 (now the Musee Quai Branly) for the exhibition “Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

I have artwork for Museums & Art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery.  I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com  where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specialises in New Guinea & Oceanic Art. Sydney is just a couple hours’ flight to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbours.