Uatogi War Club
Samoan
Navigator Islands (Samoan Islands)
Last half 19th century (ca. 1860s - 1890s)
Wood
Handle: 33cm
Handle & Club: 85,1cm
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 likely 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 carved suspension lug at the base of its grip. In rhomboidal shape, with two sloped planes on each side with a strong medial ridge extending to the handle. There are intricate geometrical triangular shaped lime inlays decorated in horizonal ordered rows, vertically around the edges, and the along the ridgeline.

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

Photograph 19: Men from the island of Tutuila, Samoa, during a human exhibition in Germany, 1890. Collection Nederlands Fotomusuem, Rotterdam. Ernst Thiele
Photograph 20: Samoan warriors, ca. 1900.

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[1] https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1351902

[2] https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/202800

‍3{] https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1376355

‍[4] https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314849 (Tonga)

‍[5] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-144961

‍[6] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-45758

‍[7] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-45757

‍[8] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-45759

‍[9] https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/45668

‍[10] https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/45664

‍[11] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1980-Q-1095

‍[12] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1841-0211-56

‍[13] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc-5457_1

‍[14] http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17648&highlight=lapalapa

[15] http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17447&highlight=lapalapa