What the heck is this one? ...

Marc · 14th September 2005, 09:49 AM

Funny thing is, they're not THAT unusual... I have two more with the same general overall features in one of the Museum Collections I'm cataloguing right now. Sorry, no pictures yet, though if there's interest I may put them up when I manage to have them removed from storage (may be one month or so before I can, so don't hold your breath...). Anyway, the basic characteristics are the same than this ebay one, tough one has a wood grip instead than a bone one and none have finger grooves. The bone grip also feature decoration with circular dots. The recurved one is exactly the same, down to the arrow-head finials, and the blade also features such a file-worked unsharpened "ricasso" (for lack of a better term).
Additionally, out of the documental tracking I'm doing from the pieces, at least one of them comes from a lot that entered the museum in 1946, and there's a good probability that its original acquisition reaches back to some point in the last quarter of the 19th c, though this is not confirmed yet.

I thought West Africa, also, when I first saw them, but my knowledge of African weapons is sadly lacking, I'm afraid. Somebody once said, here, that some West African tribes made their own interpretation of European swords (hangers and cutlasses) as prestige items. Maybe this can be a hint. The forgework is rather crude, in these exemplars...

Sorry for coming to this without pictures, but I thought that it was worth mentioning that this ebay piece wis not a one-of-a-kind occurrence...

14th September 2005, 09:49 AM	#12
Marc Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Madrid / Barcelona Posts: 256	Funny thing is, they're not THAT unusual... I have two more with the same general overall features in one of the Museum Collections I'm cataloguing right now. Sorry, no pictures yet, though if there's interest I may put them up when I manage to have them removed from storage (may be one month or so before I can, so don't hold your breath...). Anyway, the basic characteristics are the same than this ebay one, tough one has a wood grip instead than a bone one and none have finger grooves. The bone grip also feature decoration with circular dots. The recurved one is exactly the same, down to the arrow-head finials, and the blade also features such a file-worked unsharpened "ricasso" (for lack of a better term). Additionally, out of the documental tracking I'm doing from the pieces, at least one of them comes from a lot that entered the museum in 1946, and there's a good probability that its original acquisition reaches back to some point in the last quarter of the 19th c, though this is not confirmed yet. I thought West Africa, also, when I first saw them, but my knowledge of African weapons is sadly lacking, I'm afraid. Somebody once said, here, that some West African tribes made their own interpretation of European swords (hangers and cutlasses) as prestige items. Maybe this can be a hint. The forgework is rather crude, in these exemplars... Sorry for coming to this without pictures, but I thought that it was worth mentioning that this ebay piece wis not a one-of-a-kind occurrence...