113 FIG. 17 (above): Club, siriti, with fi nely engraved designs on all surfaces of the club head, including the edges (detail). Fiji. Early–mid 19th century. Wood. L: 109.3 cm. Collected by Alfred Maudslay or Baron Anatole von Hügel, 1875–1880. Cambridge, MAA, inv. Z 2983. FIG. 18 (right): Pole club (original name not known) with a ring of six heads in Tongan style (detail). Probably eastern Fiji. Early–mid 19th century. Wood. L: 105.4 cm. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, inv. UEA 894. and make or break crucial alliances of marital or military kinds. We know that it was canoe-builders who made these breastplates because the fi xing and binding techniques used to assemble the plates are the same as those used to assemble the parts of large canoes. The same applies to the binding techniques of three-piece headrests (kali), which sometimes have ivory inlays shaped from small offcuts of large teeth (fi g. 13). Not only did these craftsmen make breastplates, but also magnifi cent necklaces of sawn sections of whale ivory which preserved the natural curve of the teeth (wasekaseka or waseisei, fi g. 11). These were another innovation of the early nineteenth century. There is no evidence that they were made earlier, and without metal saws or chisels they would have been very diffi cult, though not impossible, to make without an enormous amount of wastage—not a logical technical choice when supply was limited. Many that survive are now pale, almost white—the natural color of whale teeth—but when in use in Fiji they were a warm honey color called by Fijians “red” (damudamu) produced by a process of smoking, oiling, and polishing in the same way as presentation tabua teeth and special barkcloth (masi kuvui) were dyed and rendered suitable for chiefl y use. As with breastplates,
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