Rarotonga Adze - Capt. de Frégate Riondel

A rare and early master-carver’s wood working adze, or toki, mounted with a long, tanged, basalt blade. The elegance and dimensions of the blade as well as its remarkable state of preservation show that this was a tool of the utmost importance. It is reported that artists would put their favorite adze “to sleep” in the temple on the night before beginning an important sculpture so that the adze would benefit from the powers instilled by the gods. The shaft is beautifully rendered with a complex cross section ranging from the perfectly circular pommel to oval and on to a sharp-ended egg shape towards the heel of the adze. The binding is made of sennit (braided coconut husk) tightly wrapping the tanged blade to its carved-out lodging and buffered with a section of shark or stingray skin (minor old damage to the heel of the adze).

Rarotonga or Mangaia Islands, Cook Islands, Polynesia.
Basalt, coconut fiber, fish skin, wood.
55,65 cm.
18th/19th century.
An inscription in black ink script on the shaft « Indian Adze ».
 

Provenance Provenance :
Collection of the French Naval Capitain de Frégate Jean Albert Riondel (aka Albert Riondel) 30/06/1830 at Aron, 3/12/1914 at Nantes.
By direct descent.
Acquired from a member of the family.

Capitain de Frégate Jean Albert Riondel joined the French Naval service in 1841, was named Aspirant on August 1, 1846, Enseigne de vaisseau on 26 October 1850, Lieutenant de Vaisseau on 1 December 1855, and Capitaine de Frégate on 9 March 1867. His aunt Pauline was married to Amiral de France François Thomas Tréhouart. Riondel later retired to Cherbourg where he became active in maritime security notably for the Newfoundland fisheries and is credited with the invention of tonnage related shipping lanes. There is no trace of his early voyages so far and no information regarding Pacific Ocean postings. The family recalls that he was on post in the “Islands”, but this is possibly hearsay. The collection is composed of objects of substantial quality and choice from many parts of the Pacific offering the probability that the collection was formed in France and sourced from travelers and Naval personnel.

Portrait of Capitain de Frégate Jean Albert Riondel by Alphonse Muraton (1824-1911) painted in 1878
 

Literature: “The stone adzes were secured to their wooden hafts by means of fine sinnet, itself esteemed divine. It was fabled that the peculiar way in which the natives of Mangaia fasten their axes was originally taught them by the gods. A famous god, named Tane-mataariki [the god of craftsmen], i.e., Tane-of-royal-face, was considered to be enshrined in a sacred triple axe […] to use an adze was to be a man of consequence, the skill necessary in using it being invariably referred back to the gods as its source.” (W. Wyatt Gill, Jottings from the Pacific, London, 1885).