A rare Amazon indigenous wamara wood Macana war-club
Southern Guyana or Northern Brazil, Wapitxana group of the Aruak peoples, 18th century, possibly earlier
H. 43 cm
Provenance:
Jeanne Tachard (1870-1963), La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France
The deep patina present on the club, and the residue on the part where it was held, attest to its great age. This unusually large Macana is decorated with several incised whitened anthropomorphic and human figures, a decoration found only on one other documented club in the British Museum (inv. no. Am1910,-.456), which is illustrated in: Hjalmar Stolpe, Amazon Indian designs from Brazilian and Guianan wood carvings, New York, Dover Publ., 1974.
Among the earliest objects to reach Europe in the 17th century from Guyana are ‘four wooden clubs and five hammocks’ that entered the Tradescant collection and are now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
An early description of these war-clubs in Dutch Guyana, based on observations made from the years 1772 to 1777, are described in the famous book Narrative of a five year expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America from the year 1772 to 1777 by the author Captain John Gabriël Stedman (1744-1797),: “I must not forget that every Indian carries a club, which they call apootoo, for their defence. These clubs are made of the heaviest wood in the forest; they are about eighteen inches long, flat at both ends, and square, but heavier at one end than the other.” For this book in our collection, see: Uit Verre Streken, November 2018, no. 9, or [https://www.zebregsroell.com/john-gabriel-stedham-south-america](url)
Jeanne Tachard was a hat-designer and is regarded as one of the most important patrons of modernist design in the early 20th century. Besides owning many paintings by masters like Picasso, as well as an important tribal art collection, she asked designers to design and produce furniture for her villa in La Celle-Saint-Cloud in the South of France.
Literature:
Hjalmar Stolpe, Amazon Indian designs from Brazilian and Guianan wood carvings, New York, Dover Publ., 1974
We are grateful to our dear friend Mr. Peter van Drumpt for his assistance in writing this catalogue entry.
H. 43 cm
Provenance:
Jeanne Tachard (1870-1963), La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France
The deep patina present on the club, and the residue on the part where it was held, attest to its great age. This unusually large Macana is decorated with several incised whitened anthropomorphic and human figures, a decoration found only on one other documented club in the British Museum (inv. no. Am1910,-.456), which is illustrated in: Hjalmar Stolpe, Amazon Indian designs from Brazilian and Guianan wood carvings, New York, Dover Publ., 1974.
Among the earliest objects to reach Europe in the 17th century from Guyana are ‘four wooden clubs and five hammocks’ that entered the Tradescant collection and are now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
An early description of these war-clubs in Dutch Guyana, based on observations made from the years 1772 to 1777, are described in the famous book Narrative of a five year expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America from the year 1772 to 1777 by the author Captain John Gabriël Stedman (1744-1797),: “I must not forget that every Indian carries a club, which they call apootoo, for their defence. These clubs are made of the heaviest wood in the forest; they are about eighteen inches long, flat at both ends, and square, but heavier at one end than the other.” For this book in our collection, see: Uit Verre Streken, November 2018, no. 9, or [https://www.zebregsroell.com/john-gabriel-stedham-south-america](url)
Jeanne Tachard was a hat-designer and is regarded as one of the most important patrons of modernist design in the early 20th century. Besides owning many paintings by masters like Picasso, as well as an important tribal art collection, she asked designers to design and produce furniture for her villa in La Celle-Saint-Cloud in the South of France.
Literature:
Hjalmar Stolpe, Amazon Indian designs from Brazilian and Guianan wood carvings, New York, Dover Publ., 1974
We are grateful to our dear friend Mr. Peter van Drumpt for his assistance in writing this catalogue entry.
Part of the The Americas collection.
