A FIJIAN CULACULA OR ‘PRIESTS’ CLUB, the spatulate blade wit...

Estimate

£1,200 - £1,800

A FIJIAN CULACULA OR ‘PRIESTS’ CLUB, the spatulate blade with a serated edge and  vertical raised line, the flattened ovoid shaft terminating in a defined pointed tip, 19th century
112 cms
Lots 157, 160, 161, 162, 163 were collected by a Captain Alfred Cox and are being offered by his descendants. The items are accompanied by two newspaper cuttings one of which is an obituary outlining details of his career and his propensity for collecting.

 

‘With the death of Capt. Alfred Cox, of ‘Langham Lodge’, College Road, Clacton, on Tuesday at the age of 80, Clacton has lost one of it’s most interesting residents  ….. A member of an old Weymouth family, Capt. Cox first went to sea in 1872, when he was only 14 years of age…..at 22 he had taken his master’s ticket. …….Capt. Cox’s first trip was to New Zealand….’

 

Other excerpts outline his many voyages and adventures with illustrious passengers such as Cecil Rhodes, Gandhi,  Baden Powell and Dinizulu, son of the Zulu Chief Cetewayo. Further more, the line ‘Mrs Cox has a wonderful collection of curios gathered from all countries, many of which were gifts given by natives’, strongly re-enforces the family stories that these were collected on his travels. His son John, followed on to become a sea Captain too, as outlined in the second clipping.

More Information

Dirty with wear to the blade and a small chip to one side barb, medial carved
line with some central fracturing amd movement due to a natural anomaly in the wood,
the shaft with natural fissuring and some antique infill on old knots, with marks and scratching
the tip with wear and one small chip on the waist of the shaft.