Large Maori Hand Club, New Zealand, ca. 1600-1850

mere pounamu
Length 14 3/4in (37.5cm)

Provenance
Christie's, London, 6 December 1995, Lot 6
Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection, Honolulu

Published
Kaeppler, Adrienne L., Polynesia - The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2010, fig. 492

According to Kaeppler (ibid, p. 348), "Greenstone mere were used as a short sword after a series of parries and counter-parries. As both a weapon and an insignia of rank, such mere became treasured heirlooms passed down from father to son and given personal names. Remnants of an early nineteenth-century handwritten label are attached that discuss the value placed on this hand club and note a price of 50 pounds sterling."

Finely carved from rich greenstone nephrite jade, most likely without the use of metal tools, tapering from the circular handle pierced through for attachment to a thin rounded blade, the handle with a conical end with stepped pattern; collector's label adhered onto one side.