Club

ca. 1850

Haida

The design on this club may represent an elephant seal, a rare but not unknown sea mammal in Northwest Coast waters. The protruding proboscis on this great mammal is sculpted on top, while the design on the surface—skillfully rendered in formline—reveals the face, body, and front and back flippers. Clubs made from the jawbone of the whale, like this one, as well as those fashioned from stone, wood and metals, are found along the Northwest Coast.

Whalebone

1 x 5 in. (2.54 x 12.7 cm)

L.: 22 in.

Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund

97.37

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Native Visions: Northwest Coast Art, 18th Century to the Present, October 1, 1998 - January 31, 1999

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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