2021 CLA Live Auction: Nineteenth Century War Club by Gordon Barlow

Authentic war clubs are perennial favorites for collectors of Early American arms and art, and attendees at this year’s CLF Live Fundraising Auction have some excellent pieces from which to choose. Virginia artist and collector Gordon Barlow’s donation to this year’s auction is a truly fearsome piece that will nicely round out any collection.

           

This robust club is patterned after an original Teton Sioux war club from the early nineteenth century. Barlow built his club from a finely figured plank of Appalachian tiger stripe maple harvested from the hills of West Virginia. The entire club was crafted with the use of period appropriate hand tools, an immensely laborious process which resulted in a finely made authentic reproduction.

           

Adorned with multiple rows of original square shank brass tacks, the club is likewise fitted with an antique steel blade. The entire piece was finished with a stain made from sassafras root and black walnut hulls, as well as coloring provided by green, yellow, and red ochre pigment powders. As a final protective finish, the club was given multiple coats of hand rubbed beeswax.

For more information on the work of Gordon Barlow, contact the artist directly: gordon@amaty.com

 

Photography by David Wright

Text by Joshua Shepherd

Logan's War Club by James Blake.

Made from Rock Maple,the Root Ball Blank was harvested four years ago on a hillside over looking the Site of the Yellow Creek massacre at Joshua Bakers homestead and trading post, on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River on April 30,1774 in which memebers of Logan's Family (wife-Mellana, Brother -Taylaynee also known as John Petty, Nephew- Molnah, Sister -Koonay) were lured into a insidous ambush. Logan was absent during the incident. The original club was reportively left at a Cabin site that Logan had attacked in August of the same year in retaliation for the brutal and cowardly murder of his family. The Cabin of Balser Lybrook was attacked and his three sons killed and scalped, true to the club's original the three X trophy marks line up with this incident. On the reverse side is numerous ineligible marks. The club handle has the European Intials IG carved into the base. This hideous act perpetrated by Daniel Greathouse and his brother Jacob and some associates sparked Lord Dunmores War.

Copy and photos supplied by James Blake.

War Club by Matthew Fennewald

Photographed at the 2018 CLA Show by Jan Riser.

2017 CLF Auction Item: Ball Headed War Club by Gordon Barlow

Among the tribes of the eastern woodlands, few symbols could be as potent as the ball headed war club.  Missionary John Heckewelder, who spent a lifetime on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Ohio, explained that “When the Indians have determined to take revenge” they would leave a carved war club at the site of an ambush.  It was a stark tribal message that many Europeans failed to grasp, but which native warriors intuitively understood.  “This war club is purposefully left that the enemy may know to what nation the act is to be ascribed,” observed Heckewelder, “or, in other words, war will be forthwith declared against them.”

In one of the most unique offerings of this year’s CLA fundraising auction, artist Gordon Barlow has crafted an exceptional reproduction of an 18th century ball headed war club.  Carved from ash and measuring 3” thick and 18” long, this fearsome club is sure to become an heirloom work of art.  The ball itself is gripped by the open mouth of a snake, a traditional tribal motif.  “To the Native American,” explains the artist, “the serpent is symbolic of immortality.”  Barlow’s finishing techniques imparted the piece with subtle aging that renders it nearly indistinguishable from surviving originals.  The snake itself is fitted with glass eyes, and using a mixture of stains and paint, the artist achieved a color scheme straight from the 18^th century.

An accomplished woodworker, Barlow remains a driving force within the CLA, an organization that he helped form in 1996.  Bidders at this year’s auction will not only have the opportunity to take home a remarkable work of art from a CLA artist, but a museum-quality reproduction from one of the pivotal figures in the preservation of traditional frontier arts.

For further information on the work of the artist, contact:

Gordon Barlow

50 Middlebrook Ave.

Staunton, VA 24401

Email: gordon@amaty.com

War Club by Brian Anderson

Photographed at the 2015 CLA Show by Jan Riser.

War Club by Matthew Fennewald with Bag by Alec Fourman

The club is by Matthew Fennewald. The wood is Cherry that has a burned finish that was then rubbed down with grease and tar then polished with ashes and burnished.  The bag is by Alec Fourman and except for the strap is his copy of the Ben West bag. It was resist dyed with madder roots; it has a linen lining and a silk binding with beads across the top. The Quill wrapping and cones was by Jan Zender.

Copy and photo by Mitch Cook.

Ash War Club by Brian Anderson

Photos supplied by Brian Anderson.

Joseph Brant's Ball-Headed Club

Ball-headed club

Iroquois (Mohawk)

Wood, ribbon, feather

Length 52 x width 13.5 x cm

18th century

Area of Origin: Great Lakes, Canada

Belonged to Joseph Brant (Thayendanega)

In Canada, Joseph Brant (1742 – 1807) is remembered as the Mohawk military leader who sided with the British in the American War of Independence (1776 – 1783). Following the British defeat, Brant led Loyalists and his followers to Canada where they had been granted land, a small portion of which became the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in 1841. Brant’s memory is honoured in the sash worn by Seth Newhouse in 1889.

Copy and images from Royal Ontario Museum.