Please help me ID these Chadian daggers.

xerg · 20th November 2007, 11:03 PM

Hi all. I'm currently on the ground in lovely N'djamena, Chad and picked up a couple of daggers purely because they were aesthetically pleasing and the price was right (I got them both for 9,500CFA from a dude who commenced at 40k).

Here's a few photos taken inside with flash:

[For some reason when I click "insert image" at the top of the page, it pops up an html box. When I put in the link to the images, it doesn't display them in the post. If you click on each link you can follow it to the images, however. How do I inline images? Should I just have to click on the little yellow box with the mountain that says "insert image"? Is there a problem with pics hosted by Flickr? Zuh?]

I'm not sure if you can see, but in the photo with the naked blades, the one on the left has a zig zag pattern etched in around the central fuller.

Like most art merchants, the guy I bought them from swore up and down that they were really REALLY like for really real old and from the region, blah blah blah. The Chadians in particular have a peculiar habit of telling you that EVERYTHING is simply "Chadian" regardless of how it's obviously not Chadian. They also refuse to elaborate beyond an item being just "Chadian"; apparently there are no ethnic groups in Tchad!

The seller (who appeared to be more from the North than the capital region) when pressured eventually named a specific town that sounded like "Gotum Gono" but couldn't name a specific tribe (he just kept repeating "Chadian" and that they came from not far from the capital).

Anyway, the leatherwork honestly doesn't look all that old to me, even though it's a bit damaged. The blades are also in somewhat decent condition. I am a total novice when it comes to weapon stuff, though, so I really don't have much of a clue.

If anyone has any info on these I'd really love to hear it.

Also, on a totally unrelated subject, does anyone know of a good website for learning about how to discriminate between authentically old trade chevrons/millefiores and fakes? Or better yet, a good beading forum that's as helpful, knowledgeable, and heavily trafficked as this one? I've been looking and haven't stumbled on anything useful.

20th November 2007, 11:03 PM	#1
xerg Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 7	Please help me ID these Chadian daggers. Hi all. I'm currently on the ground in lovely N'djamena, Chad and picked up a couple of daggers purely because they were aesthetically pleasing and the price was right (I got them both for 9,500CFA from a dude who commenced at 40k). Here's a few photos taken inside with flash: [For some reason when I click "insert image" at the top of the page, it pops up an html box. When I put in the link to the images, it doesn't display them in the post. If you click on each link you can follow it to the images, however. How do I inline images? Should I just have to click on the little yellow box with the mountain that says "insert image"? Is there a problem with pics hosted by Flickr? Zuh?] I'm not sure if you can see, but in the photo with the naked blades, the one on the left has a zig zag pattern etched in around the central fuller. Like most art merchants, the guy I bought them from swore up and down that they were really REALLY like for really real old and from the region, blah blah blah. The Chadians in particular have a peculiar habit of telling you that EVERYTHING is simply "Chadian" regardless of how it's obviously not Chadian. They also refuse to elaborate beyond an item being just "Chadian"; apparently there are no ethnic groups in Tchad! The seller (who appeared to be more from the North than the capital region) when pressured eventually named a specific town that sounded like "Gotum Gono" but couldn't name a specific tribe (he just kept repeating "Chadian" and that they came from not far from the capital). Anyway, the leatherwork honestly doesn't look all that old to me, even though it's a bit damaged. The blades are also in somewhat decent condition. I am a total novice when it comes to weapon stuff, though, so I really don't have much of a clue. If anyone has any info on these I'd really love to hear it. Also, on a totally unrelated subject, does anyone know of a good website for learning about how to discriminate between authentically old trade chevrons/millefiores and fakes? Or better yet, a good beading forum that's as helpful, knowledgeable, and heavily trafficked as this one? I've been looking and haven't stumbled on anything useful. Last edited by xerg; 20th November 2007 at 11:14 PM.