Amsterdam - Native American Objects

A splendid and rare Amazon indigenous wamara wood Macana war-club Southern-Guyana or Northern Brazil, Wapitxana group of the Aruak peoples, 18th century, possibly earlier Measure: H. 43 cm The deep patina of the club present, and the residue on the part where it was held, attest to its great age. This unusually large Macana is decorated with several incised whitened anthropomorphic and human figures, a decoration only found on one other documented club in the British Museum, which is illustrated in: Hjalmar Stolpe, Amazon Indian...

Unique diorama depicting a North American river-scene United States of America, early 20th century Measures: H 36 x W 68.5 x D 34 cm The dioram...

Follower of Gerrit Schouten (second half of the 19th century) Diorama depicting a Carib Indigenous camp Carved wood, papier-mâché, paint on paper...

A Surinam-themed Amsterdam long-case clock The Netherlands, 1746-1756, dial signed Nicolaas Weylandt/Amsterdam The case of the clock is made of Rio palisander veneer and snakewood, with the arch showing a painted scene of the harbour of Paramaribo, Fort Zeelandia and Dutch ships in anchorage, the spandrels decorated with figural representations of the four continents, the centre of the dial painted with Mercury, the god of trade, seated on a bale signed VCS (Vereenigde Compagnie Suriname), and one of the barrels bearing the initials “RBS,” on the left the river god of the Surinam river, with a Dutch three-master in the background. Measures: H 259 x W 60 x D 35 cm (case) Diameter 32 cm (clock dial) This exceptionally rare long-case clock probably was ordered by one of the many wealthy families living along the Amsterdam canals that owned or had shares in plantations in Surinam. It’s a successful marriage of the work of an accomplished 18th century Amsterdam clockmaker, a Dutch cabinetmaker working with exotic tropical timbers, a woodcarver familiar with both Dutch Rococo design and Surinamese iconography, and a painter with knowledge, whether first- hand or through other visualisations, of the Paramaribo waterfront. In the production of this Gesamtkunstwerk, only the name of the clockmaker is known: Nicloaas Weylandt (circa 1700-1754), who had a business situated on the Nieuwendijk near the Haarlemmersluis in Amsterdam from 1742 until his death. The case is made of imported timbers from Surinam; Rio-palisander and snakewood. A very similar clock-case, veneered in walnut, is illustrated in J. Zeeman, De Nederlandse staande klok...