Featured NWC Fish Club

Just picked this up this morning. What do you suggest to clean and preserve the piece? Has some age, with a trace of red ocre. You opinion?

Thanks Steve

 

I'd go with about any type of furniture polish. I'm not real impressed with the piece; form usage is not really correct, and suggests the maker might not be native; looks like someone who had seen NW Coast native art, but had not really studied it much. Just my opinion.

 

I can not speak to NWA or not but when we went deep fishing, the first mate used a club to kill the fish once they were pulled on board. It wasn't carved just a short baseball bat.

 

I don't know the answer about cleaning, but it looks like a whale to me.

 

It doesn't look like it has any finish at all. Anything you do is going to add one.

 

i'd use a light oil...but not clean it.....




it's a seal....based on the centre design..

 

I would use a soft brush to gently clean it, but not apply any oil or other finish. You can't go wrong doing nothing to change the surface, and if kept in proper conditions the wood does not need anything to preserve it.

 

I defer to your greater knowledge on this topic!

 

Komo-That's a nice old collection of clubs.Looks like a page from an old museum catalog/ethnographic publication ?

 

some early museum photo...
a mix of fish clubs and seal clubs....but....the far right is a most is most rare....as in ' well done please'... war club, the likes of which are not often seen.....

 

Komo-The one in the museum plate's stunning-I'm imagining myself holding it,the weight and patination-yikes !

 

As books said, keep it in the right conditions, I.e warm and dry. Rot needs wet. Unless of course you are planning on going on a fish clubbing spree. Any preservative is likely to stain it.