The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

Top of a black wood war club shaped like a highly abstracted face with rectangular cheek-bones jutting out on either side and circular knobs subtly carved with faces making the nose, and pupils. Another face is carved on the forehead and below the nose where the mouth would be, alongside other geometric patterns. The face narrows as it merges seamlessly with the shaft. Bands of radiating fine lines outline the circular eyes.

War Club ('U'u)

early 1800s

Polynesia, Marquesas Islands, early 19th Century

stained ironwood
Overall: 148.2 x 19.8 x 11.2 cm (58 3/8 x 7 13/16 x 4 7/16 in.)
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund 1963.255
Location: Not on view

Description

The head of this war club is carved as an abstract face, with small additional faces appearing at the eyes, nose, and forehead. Low-relief patterns encircle the club's neck. Fashioned from dense-grained ironwood (casuarina) or toa wood, the club is quite heavy. Like stilt footrests, war clubs were carved by expert artists (tahuna) and cured in the mud of a taro patch. The glossy finish is the result of regular rubbing and polishing with scented coconut oil. Similar war clubs were seen and recorded by the crew of Captain Cook's second voyage to the South Seas in 1772-75.
  • Harry Beasley
    Harry Beasley
  • Polynesian Sculpture. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 15, 1967-January 1, 1968); The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, NY (February 14-May 14, 1968).
    Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=War Club ('U'u)|url=false|author=|year=early 1800s|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.255