Hand Weaponcirca 1778

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Title: Hand Weapon
Place Made: Hawaiian Islands
Date Made: circa 1778
Medium: Wood and shark teeth
Dimensions: 5 x 4 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. (12.7 x 11.11 x 8.89 cm)
Credit Line: 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
Accession Number: M.2008.66.27
Classification: Arms and Armor
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: 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.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.