FINE AND RARE DINKA (SOUTH SUDAN) WAR CLUB

37 1/8” length. Finely crafted of tapered form with swelled butt and rounded tip. Three captive leather rings for hand positioning in battle. Many weapons of diverse cultures incorporate guides for hand positioning so that the grip may be changed in combat without taking the eyes off the adversary. The grip with trade iron tape. The only other example we have been able to find is in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, England, #1884.12.14, which is documented to have been collected 1853-59 by John Pethrick. That example is 31” in length with a single leather ring and lacks the grip binding. The Pitt-Rivers collection virtually defined the science of study and preservation of ethnographic art and artifacts.