Rare Fishtail Fighting Club from Port Essington, Northern Territory

Rare fishtail fighting club, Port Essington, Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory. Carved hardwood and natural pigment. Cf. Davies, S., collected: 150 years of Aboriginal Art and artifacts at the Macleay Museum, the University of Sydney, Sydney 2002, p. 23, pl. 12 for three similar clubs collected in the Port Essington area before 1878. This club compares favourably with those collected at Port Essington pre-1878 and now in the Macleay Museum. The Macleay's catalogue States that Basedow (1907) recorded that this type of club was used during fighting at close quarters and that it was used 'To strike and ward off blows'. The catalogue also suggests that the painted decoration indicates that they May have had a ceremonial purpose, length 124.5 x 9 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, Sydney