African shield for pleasure and opinion

[Martin Lubojacky]

Hi,
Recently I acquired this shield and I would be interested in your opinion. Is it Turkana ? Or another neighboring tribe ? Length: 123 cm, width 59 cms. Decorations made of alluminium (wire, cap, plate). The place under the handle is reinforced with a very thick (dark brown) hide. The shield is a little bit twisted, but, I think, it will be possible to repair (flatten out) at least a little. The pompon made of feathers is nicely dense. I like this shield a lot
Regards,
Martin

[Martin Lubojacky]

details

[Tim Simmons]

I really like the pompom, nice finish. I have a large spear with a small pompom. This form of shield is used by many different peoples as far as I know.

[colin henshaw]

A good example of this type, I like it. Could be Turkana or a neighbouring tribe, hard to say... Aluminium was/is used in quite a few native artefacts from Kenya.

Sometimes see this type of shield made from scrap iron.

Regards.

[Sajen]

Hi Martin,

very nice Turkana shield. Many collectors don't like when aluminium is used by ethnograhic items but I am sure that this will change in 100 years! This shield is tribal used and it was used the material which was available, I see this very relaxed. Again, very nice shield.

Regards,
Detlef

[Martin Lubojacky]

Thank you all for comments !
Detlef, I see it also very relaxed. They really used material which was available and which they considered nice. (I already wrote, I think, in some old thread, that once, when I was in a desperate need of money, I offered a few pieces of things I brought from Ethiopia to Naprstek´s Muzeum in Prague. The museum has chosen two things and one of them was a wooden vessel, adorments of which were made of green plastics. It was real, used by willagers and very nice artefact ...). I like this shield incliding its aluminium parts and I think aluminium has also been in use in Africa "for a couple of years", from the Second World War at least (I personally consider African artefacts older than 40 years as "old" ones. But the most important is natural beauty - either old or new).
Refards,
Martin

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

Thank you all for comments !
Detlef, I see it also very relaxed. They really used material which was available and which they considered nice. (I already wrote, I think, in some old thread, that once, when I was in a desperate need of money, I offered a few pieces of things I brought from Ethiopia to Naprstek´s Muzeum in Prague. The museum has chosen two things and one of them was a wooden vessel, adorments of which were made of green plastics. It was real, used by willagers and very nice artefact ...). I like this shield incliding its aluminium parts and I think aluminium has also been in use in Africa "for a couple of years", from the Second World War at least (I personally consider African artefacts older than 40 years as "old" ones. But the most important is natural beauty - either old or new).
Refards,
Martin

I agree complete with you, I have two well used Halmahera shields (salawaku) in my collection where the inlays are from white plastic!
Both have a very nice patination so I am sure that they were in use for a couple of decades and I like both very much. I think both are from the 40th until 50th last century and in my eyes are good ethnograhic examples for this time when plastic was for this people a new and maybe valuable material.

Regards,
Detlef

[Tim Simmons]

I think Africans have used Aluminium for well over a century.

[Pieje]

I agree, aluminium was already used in the 1920ties in former Belgian Congo, possibly even before that.