Maori Short Club, New Zealand

Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, acquired by 1961
The Museum of Primitive Art, New York
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Duplicates from the Collection of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and the Museum of Primitive Art, May 4, 1967, lot 52
Ben Heller, New York, acquired by 1982
Sotheby's, New York, The Ben Heller Collection, December 1, 1983, lot 13
Frieda and Milton Rosenthal, Harrison, New York, acquired at the above auction
Arte Primitivo, New York, December 1, 2008, lot 90, consigned by the estate of the above
Rainer Werner Bock, Maui
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on May 4, 2016

The Museum of Primitive Art, Figure Sculpture from Polynesia in the Collection of the Museum of Primitive Art, 1961, no. 4 (listed)

The present short club or kotiate paraoa previously in the collection of Nelson Rockefeller is an exceptionally fine example of the short hand-held weapon carried by high-ranking Maori warriors of Aotearoa (New Zealand), used in combat and hung from the waist as a status object when not in use. The carver has patiently defined elegantly balanced lobes of whalebone, circumscribed with sharp bladed edges in a symmetrical composition centered upon a tiki image with projecting tongue.  The butt of the club terminates in a second face; each incorporates features of parrot and man. Both its aesthetic beauty and fearsome function contributed to the mana of its original owner. Such objects were passed down in elite families as important ancestral heirlooms, and a warrior facing death when captured might request that his captors use his own supernatural weapon to deliver the final blow.