Hand Weapon

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Hand Weapon

Hawaiian Islands, circa 1778
Arms and Armor
Wood and shark teeth
5 x 4 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. (12.7 x 11.11 x 8.89 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation (M.2008.66.27)
Art of the Pacific
Not currently on public view

Provenance

Collected by Captain James Cook (1728–1779), Hawaii, on the third voyage, in 1778. Leverian Museum, London. Jef Vanderstraete (1904–1984), Brussels and Lasne. George Ortiz (1927–2013), Geneva....
Collected by Captain James Cook (1728–1779), Hawaii, on the third voyage, in 1778. Leverian Museum, London. Jef Vanderstraete (1904–1984), Brussels and Lasne. George Ortiz (1927–2013), Geneva. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
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Label

Gallery Label

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Gallery Label
The crescent-shaped shark tooth weapon is very similar to the longer Hand Weapon in LACMA’s collection, which was collected in Hawaii at the same time. It has a different style, made of a curved tree-limb crescent with a semicircle opening. The flat bottom has a single shark tooth sunken in at each end where the curve begins facing out. The piece is gripped through the middle and was used in a punching motion similar to that of brass knuckles. The form and composition of this weapon are more aesthetic than built for strength in actual use and could explain why only three examples are known to exist.

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Bibliography

  • Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.