Club

Item number 3138/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Carved wooden club. Blade is a long leaf shape, increasingly thick toward the centre on both sides where a line runs down the spine from tip to hilt. Swirling foliage is carved into the surface, a natural light brown colour in crevices, with the surface painted a dark brown or black. The grip on the hilt is undecorated, smooth and rounded, Pommel is in the shape of a bird's head with patterning carved along back and top, under which is a large eye and curved, blunt beak.

Narrative

This club was said to have been collected by the donor's great-grandfather, William H. Lomas. Lomas was one of the earliest non First Nations settlers in the Cowichan Valley. He moved there from Victoria in the 1860s and died in 1899. The floral patterns are reminiscent of carved and decorated Maori paddle clubs, in technique as well as style. European gouges were used in making the floral patterns. Possibly the club blade used to be plain, with just the southern-coast-style bird head on the handle? Someone else may have added the floral patterns, and the pattern at the top of the bird's head, at a later date?