A rare whalebone club from the iconic "Warwick Castle sale" a landmark auction held by Sotheby & Co. in London on December 8, 1969. Titled A Collection of American Indian and Oceanic Art, The Property of the Trustees of the Warwick Castle Resettlement, the auction dispersed historical non-European artifacts long held by the Earls of Warwick, the majority having been collected on one of the three voyages of Captain Cook.
The Nuu-chah-nulth, historically known as the Nootka, lived along the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, where ocean travel, fishing, and whaling shaped much of their cultural and ceremonial life. High-ranking chiefs were especially associated with whale hunting, an activity that carried social, spiritual, and political significance within a society organized around rank, ceremony, and maritime power. This whalebone Ch'it'uut war club belongs to that tradition, its Thunderbird pommel connecting it to the imagery of chiefly authority.
Captain James Cook's third voyage reached Nootka Sound in March 1778, one of the earliest major points of contact between the Nuu-chah-nulth and European navigators. During the expedition's stay, crew members traded iron and other materials for food, furs, oil, and Indigenous objects brought to the ships by Nootka men, and objects acquired during this encounter entered European collections as part of the early collecting history of the Northwest Coast. This club's Warwick Castle provenance places it within that history of early exchange.
Most surviving Ch'it'uut war clubs are carved from whale bone such as this example and are housed in museums worldwide. For a club of this merit to appear on the marketplace is a true rarity indeed.
18th Century
Height 20 1/2 inches (52.07 cm)
Provenance: Bill Evans, Sydney
Lord Alistair MacAlpine, London and Broome Australia
Maurice Braham, London
Sothebys London, December 8, 1969
This item contains ESA antique exempt ivory and cannot be sold internationally, or to anyone residing in the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. We guarantee that it was made prior to 1972.
A rare whalebone club from the iconic "Warwick Castle sale" a landmark auction held by Sotheby & Co. in London on December 8, 1969. Titled A Collection of American Indian and Oceanic Art, The Property of the Trustees of the Warwick Castle Resettlement, the auction dispersed historical non-European artifacts long held by the Earls of Warwick, the majority having been collected on one of the three voyages of Captain Cook.
The Nuu-chah-nulth, historically known as the Nootka, lived along the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, where ocean travel, fishing, and whaling shaped much of their cultural and ceremonial life. High-ranking chiefs were especially associated with whale hunting, an activity that carried social, spiritual, and political significance within a society organized around rank, ceremony, and maritime power. This whalebone Ch'it'uut war club belongs to that tradition, its Thunderbird pommel connecting it to the imagery of chiefly authority.
Captain James Cook's third voyage reached Nootka Sound in March 1778, one of the earliest major points of contact between the Nuu-chah-nulth and European navigators. During the expedition's stay, crew members traded iron and other materials for food, furs, oil, and Indigenous objects brought to the ships by Nootka men, and objects acquired during this encounter entered European collections as part of the early collecting history of the Northwest Coast. This club's Warwick Castle provenance places it within that history of early exchange.
Most surviving Ch'it'uut war clubs are carved from whale bone such as this example and are housed in museums worldwide. For a club of this merit to appear on the marketplace is a true rarity indeed.
18th Century
Height 20 1/2 inches (52.07 cm)
Provenance: Bill Evans, Sydney
Lord Alistair MacAlpine, London and Broome Australia
Maurice Braham, London
Sothebys London, December 8, 1969
This item contains ESA antique exempt ivory and cannot be sold internationally, or to anyone residing in the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. We guarantee that it was made prior to 1972.
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