Collected by Captain James Cook (1728–1779), Hawaii, on the third voyage, in 1778. Leverian Museum, London. Richard Hall Clarke and heirs, Uffculme, England. James Thomas Hooper (1897–1971), London, in 1932 (sale, London, Christie’s, 21 June 1977, lot 155). Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.

Gallery Label
Objects like this shark-toothed weapon were thought to possess power and were used exclusively by chiefs and nobles. This and other objects whose sole purpose was to impress, were important in a socially stratified society in which gods, chiefs, and its other members were mutually dependent on one another as well as on elements from the natural world. This rarely seen weapon is carved as a flat club with an elongated handle, the end as a sharpened bludgeon dagger. Triangular shark teeth are drilled and lashed to the sides; curved teeth at the upper curve of the wood are tied with the curve pointing toward the handle for a more effective pulling motion. Such weapons were abandoned almost immediately after Western contact. This example was collected in Hawaii in 1778 on the third and final expedition of Captain James Cook.