Loan (Exhibition)
Exhibition \'Pacific Divinities: Gods, Chiefs and Priests in Polynesia 1760-1850\', March 2006-May 2006.
Event Date
Author: maa

Exhibition (Maudslay Gallery)
EXH.2018.4 | Pacific Currents
Event Date
Author: Remke Velden

Loan (Exhibition)
Polynésie, June 2008-Sept 2008
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Large, spade shaped, implement, carved all over the flat with the usual zig-zag carving and with a number of small figures of men occurring at intervals; Human Figure
Event Date 20/8/1987
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Research: Extract from letter headed "Shotover, College Avenue, Epsom" By Waterhouse.P.L On 14 8 1932 - "one large spade shaped wooden implement, carved all over the flat with the usual zig-zag carving and with a number of small figures of men occurring at intervals. I always understood this to be some sort of sacraficial memento mori, each human figure representing a human sacrifice. These have been in the possession of my father & myself later since the early cannibal days of Fiji; - they were sent from there by my uncle who was one of the first missionaries in the islands in the 1840s to my father in Tasmania".
Event Date 20/8/1987
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Catalogue card reads [stamped in black ink:] '32-680 FIJI'. [typed:] 'Paddle club. Extract from letter P. L. Waterhouse Esq, Shotover, College Avenue, Epsom, 14/8/32:- "one large spade shape wooden implement, carved all over the flat with usual zig-zag carving and with a number of small figures of men occurring at intervals. I always understood this to be some sort of sacrificial memento mori, each human figure representing a human sacrifice. These have been in the possession of my father & myself later since the early cannibal days of Fiji; - they were sent from there by my uncle who was one of the first missionaries in the islands in the 1840s to my father in Tasmania." Letter 15/12/32 from Mr E. K. Waterhouse:- "Would you record in your inventories as presented by my father P. L. Waterhouse. Signed Ellis. K. Waterhouse. On the back of the card [in black ink:] '(Centenary Exhibition)'. [stamped in blue ink:] 'SHOW CASE NUMBER' and [added in pencil:] 'Recent accessions'.
Event Date 14/11/2012
Author: Lucie Carreau

Description (CMS Description)
Very large paddle-club (culacula) carved from heavy dark wood. The object is completely decorated with incised geometrical design and 29 anthropomorphic figures, some of them in pairs, side by side or feet to feet. The lower part of the blade is marked by a thick and rounded horizontal ridge. An uncarved vertical line divides the surface of the blade in two in the centre. In the lower part of the blade, where the paddle widen, the edges are serrated (one side is chipped). The shaft and handle are oval in section. The butt is also oval in section, but of a wider section, is undecorated and has been rounded off. A circular pink paint mark visible on the butt.
Event Date 14/11/2012
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
'On Loan & Exhibited: On display in "Pacific Encounters 1760- 1860", Sainsbury Research Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (May- August 2006)' (F. Veys, 25/04/2006).
‘On Loan & Exhibited: On display in 'Polynésie: Arts et Divinités 1760-1860’, Musée du quai Branly, Paris (17 June – 14 September 2008) F. Wonu Veys’

Event Date 28/1/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (CMS Context)
Labels & inscriptions: '32-680' inscribed in white ink on the lower part of the blade on both sides.
Event Date 24/3/2013
Author: Lucie Carreau

Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: 'Chiefs & Governors: Art and power in Fiji', Cambridge MAA, 7 June 2013 - 19 April 2014.
Event Date 25/4/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Conservation ()
CON.2013.123 |
Event Date 1/3/2016
Author: maa

Conservation (Museum Additions Removed)
CON.2018.4087 | Museum Additions Removed
Event Date 3/4/2018
Author: Kirstie Williams