Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

  • Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club

Uatogi / Lapalapa War Club
Samoan / Polynesian / Austronesian
Navigator Islands (Samoan Islands)
Last half 19th century (ca. 1860s - 1890s)
Wood (Casuarina equisetifolia)
Handle: 33cm
Handle & Club: 84,5cm
Collection Date: 2021
Collection Number: 152

Ex. Rick Stroud: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA (2021)

A large and heavy Samoan war club known as a uatogi or lapalapa, from which its name derives its form, intended to mimic the flexible and fibrous midrib of a large coconut tree leaf. The wood is from the casuarina equisetifolia, a form of ironwood, and one of the hardest timbers in the world.

The club, carved from heavy coconut leaf stalk, its lower half has a cylindrical handle that flares outward near the pommel and has a curved suspension lug at the base of its grip. The club rhomboidal shaped, with two sloped planes on each side with a strong medial ridge. There are intricate geometrical triangular shaped lime inlays decorated in ordered rows, around the edges, and the along the ridgeline.

A rare, old and sought-after club. The lime inlay is about 60 - 70% intact. The inlay is reminiscent of older clubs, common in Samoa, which distinguishes it from similiar Tongo clubs. Single crack to the top on one side.

Photograph 8: Samoa, ca. 1900.
Photograph 9: Samoan Chief Portrait, Samoa, 1889 - 1890.
Photograph 10: Men from the island of Tutuila, Samoa, during a human exhibition in Germany, 1890. Collection Nederlands Fotomusuem, Rotterdam. Ernst Thiele.