Ceremonial War Club, ca. 1850
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GUEST:
It was sitting on a workbench in a garage at a garage sale amongst tools and junk. I knew it was going to be mine regardless of the price.
APPRAISER:
Did you know what it was?
GUEST:
I knew it was Native American. I asked the gentleman how much it was, and I said, "I'll take it."
APPRAISER:
How much was it?
GUEST:
$75. And the best $75 I have ever spent. I think it's a war club. I think it's a ceremonial piece, maybe? The wear on it isn't such that it would have been used in battle, I don't think. The surface is… is phenomenal. I found it in Overland Park, Kansas, so maybe Prairie Indian?
APPRAISER:
It's a war club, and it's from the Great Lakes area. It's hard to say exactly what tribe it is, whether it's Ojibwe or whether it's from the other side of the Great Lakes. It would take some study and some comparison, and you still might not know exactly what it is. It appears to be made from ash, but I think the key word was "ceremonial" with this. I think it dates to around 1850. The scale of it, the weight of it, when you see the older ones, they're generally smaller. I have seen larger ones in museums that date back to the 1600s, but they generally are a smaller scale, and they're heavier, and they're a denser wood. And they were made to crack somebody's skull. As things moved on and times changed, there was less of that, but they were still a tremendous symbol of authority and a symbol of a warrior. It's got some great symbolism on it, and it does have a little damage. If you look over here, this was probably an otter, and his head's missing. It's been broken off right here on the end, but it's been broken off a long, long time. I don't mean ten or 15 years before you got it, I mean it's been broken off probably since the 1800s, so a long time ago. It has tremendous color, it has red ochre rubbed all over this ball, and it has traces of red down the back, and then it has a black color on the backside. If I can take it off of here, you can see the black, it's all rubbed under this side. And there's this star...
GUEST:
Wow, yes.
APPRAISER:
...Done with pinheads in the front. Which is just a great detail, really beautiful. And there's red all down here also. And the shape is really elegant, it has a fabulous twist to this. Really clean, beautiful object. What do you think it's worth?
GUEST:
I'd… guesstimate maybe $1,000.
APPRAISER:
Well, we all looked at it, and we looked at a number of others that have sold in the past five to ten years, and we went through a lot that will never be sold because they're in institutional collections. If this came up for auction, I would easily expect it to bring $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
What?
APPRAISER:
So a fair amount of money. And, you know…
GUEST:
Oh my God, you’re kidding.
APPRAISER:
…A good buy at the sale.
GUEST:
Yeah, my... my knees are shaking.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's a – it’s a beautiful thing. Now, it just doesn't get much better, so enjoy it. You have a treasure.
GUEST:
My - my knees are shaking. My knees are shaking, I can hardly stand. This is incredible. I'm so glad I stopped at that garage sale.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, no kidding.
GUEST:
I am thrilled. I am absolutely shaking.
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