An early 19th Century Polynesian, Marquesas Island, U'u war ...

1/8

Hammer

£21,000

Fees

An early 19th Century Polynesian, Marquesas Island, U'u war club with relief carved tiki heads, eyes, faces and bands of geometric motifs above a tapered cylindrical shaft, length 147cm.

CONDITION REPORT - Please refer to department for a detailed report.

Provenance - Private collection - gifted to the current owners uncle circa 1959 by Mrs. Sybil Frances Lucas-Scudamore of Kentchurch Court, Herefordshire.

In 1959 after a torrential downpour, a flash flood burst into the house through the kitchen, causing extensive damage to the house. Following this event the war club was gifted to the current owner's uncle who was the head gardener at Kentchurch Court at that time.

NB - The purpose of the U'u was to render its owner powerful and invulnerable. As a heavy war club it served this purpose in a very literal sense, but had great spiritual power too, as a vessel for ancestral mana.

Warfare was an integral part of Marquesan life whether as the result of territorial rivalries or because of the need to obtain redress for perceived slights, insults, or humiliation. Important warriors were, therefore, amongst the most influential and high-ranking members of Marquesan society, and their most prized possession and emblem was an U'u.

These large, heavy decorated clubs were carved from ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia), known to the Marquesans as toa, which is also the Marquesan word for warrior. The U'u clubs were placed in the mud of taro fields and then polished with coconut oil to obtain the rich dark patina, often bound with sennit around the base of the handle and with human hair or feathers, the hair usually being that of relatives.

The great distinguishing feature of all U'u is the janiform head of the club, which is covered in an array of small heads and faces. These are arranged in such a way that together they form a larger face, a sort of visual "pun", in which the eyes and nose are made of small heads. The array of faces on an U'u held many layers of meaning. The Marquesans held the head to be the most sacred, or tapu part of the body, as the site of a person’s mana, or spiritual power. Also important is that the Marquesans call both the face and the eyes mata, and that this word has great genealogical significance.

The curved crutch like top was so that the owner could put it under his arm and lean on it. The owner would have been a high ranking and important person in Marquesan society, a leader in warfare, above these warriors in Marquesan society would have only been chiefs and priests.

The carving of these U'u clubs resulted in a traditional form throughout the late 18th Century to the 1840s, but no two have the exact same decoration, making each a personal symbol of owners' relationship with his ancestors.

The imagery on the club constitutes their protective presence within the object itself. Considering these theories, and the traditional belief in the Marquesas Islands that it was sacrilege to approach a chief or warrior from behind, it seems probable that the multiplicity of faces on an U'u were intended in part to represent the all-seeing and watchful character of the ancestors. They ensure that a vigilant ancestor faces out in all four cardinal directions.