A Rennell Island stone head club baukiaga Melanesia with an eight point basalt head

A Rennell Island stone head club baukiaga

Melanesia

with an eight point basalt head, fibre bound to a wood handle, 19th century,

40cm long, on a stand. (2)

Provenance

Private Collection, Melbourne.

Mark and Carolyn Blackburn, Hawaii.

Bonhams, Los Angeles, Africa & Oceanic Art, 11 May 2016, lot 133

Published

Kaeppler, Adrienne, Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection, 2010, p. 273, fig. 231.

According to Kaeppler "This rare club has a finely shaped stone head. Most known examples are entirely made of wood. Only four other stone-head examples are known. These are in the Otago Museum, Dunedin, N.Z.; British Museum, London; Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, U.K.; and Brisbane Museum, Australia."