Rare XIX cent Cook islands adze handle.

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Rare XIX cent Cook islands adze handle.:
$500.00

Rare XIX cent Cook islandsadze handle.

Handle is straight with a medialridge, carving deeply incised, metal cut, binding with sennit, presence of theshark skin that was used to hold the stone in place. Sadly, the stone ismissing, but the shaft is an excellent mid XIX (or before given its style) centuryexample. It is 84 cm tall.

Most of the adze (if not all), arecoming from the island of Mangaia (discovered by Capt Cook on March 29, 1777). Theyare refereed often as Cook Islands or Hervey Island adzes. The 32 adzes from thePeabody museum have been published in 1937. They have collecting dates as earlyas 1840, and we can see the evolution of the style with time. Note for examplethat the adze number 8 on the plate, is almost identical to our. Same carving,proportion, presence of the medial ridge. It had been collected in 1850.

Extract fromPolynesian Art at sale 1965 – 1980 by Charles W. Mack: “The so-called Cook Island ceremonial adze were made only on theisland of Mangaia. These ceremonial adzes are only loosely based on smallerancient types with incised hafts (toki tamaki), which were the property ofchiefs and apparently served as insignia of rank. Like the Maori Toki poutangata, toki tamaki were used on occasion to dispatch captive foes.

Ceremonial adzes weremade after the Mangaians had ceased to use stone bladed adzes as working toolsin favor of European supplied metal implements. These post contact adzesmade for the tourist market, were fitted with the abandoned pre-contact stoneblades, which were lashed to the newly made hafts with very fine flat braidedsennit, wound in elaborate and intricate patterns.