Auction Closed
May 13, 03:32 PM GMT
Estimate
800 - 1,200 USD
Lot Details
Description
CLUB (KILA)
Southeastern Solomon Islands
Wood, woven orchid vine fiber
Length: 46 ½ in (118.1 cm)
Henry Archibald Tufnell (1854-1898), Wi꧙mbledon, ൩acquired by the late 19th century
Pitt Rivers Museum, Universit♛y of Oxford, presented in 1899 by Henry Anson, executor of Tufnell's estate
Denver Art Museum (inv. no. 96-QM-EX), acquired from the above by exchange oꦿn July 22, 1948
Harry A. Franklin, Beverly Hills, a💞ꦏcquired from the above by exchange in April, 1962
David Akin notes that kila clubs are "common in North Malaita [...where] the handles are plaited with orchid vine and geru dyed palm strips" (Akin, "Malaitan War Clubs", Pacific Arts Newsletter, No. 16, January 1983, p. 17). Deborah Waite attributes two similar examples to the neighboring Nggela (or Florida) Islands, noting that the nineteenth-century travellers to the Solomon Islands Henry Brougham and Herbert Meade both attributed them to the latter group (Waite and Conru, Solomon Islands Art, Milan, 2008, p. 123).
The present kila, which waꦕs collected during the 19th century, retains much of its beautiful and delicately woven orchid vine binding.