Hi Regina, as you know, I can be an excitable boy and not a very materialistic one at that, but as soon as I heard "arrowheads" (as a gardener and digger of many holes, I was always half looking for one) and laid eyes on this auction display photo, 6 weeks ago, I knew it had to be mine. I became obsessed, lost sleep and when I finally got to examine everything close up I thought it would be way too expensive. At the preview there were 4 people with a magnifying glass hovering over MY stuff for about a half hour, taking notes and pictures so I figured they KNEW. Apparently not. Not knowing what the auctioneer was even talking about I just held my card up in the air and magically the bidding stopped at a very comfortable level for me, so my heart soared like an eagle (much like the one on the root club). Needless to say, I'm just about as happy as a grasshopper can be.
 |
| Grasshopper's treasures |
We decided to show the photos in batches and here's the first one, of a couple of carved root clubs:
The intricate handle "chip" carving may mean that these belonged to a chief, or shaman/medicine man.
They're made from the root ball/burl of a young birch tree and the carvings release the spirit of the sacred animal and then they go out and club the crap out of each other with it for fun on Saturday nights. The two I have definitely have battle scars.
Well done and thank you for the colourful description of the clubs, Grasshopper!
There are more photos to come, stay tuned for future posts.
[Please click on images to see all the details in full glory.]
UPDATE
Grasshopper has been doing some research on various items and found something fascinating about the root clubs HERE.