Sword - Kaskara? - Comments please.

[longfellow]

I believe this is a Kaskara, but what I would really like to know is how would one date the piece?

There are no symbols or names or writing that I can find. It has a stamped (?) copper grip – the design is of diamond shapes with indentations in the center of each and the pommel is stamped a different repeating designs in each of the concentric circles on the top, as well as circles of designs on the side. It was displayed with 2 other swords on a wooden plaque – either a shield or device for displaying a crest and had a note on a small string tag saying '3rd crusade' and I always thought it to be a ‘decorator’ piece.

Length is 42", the guard is a hair over 6" wide, grip and pommel about 5 3/4" long. Any help confirming identity and age would be of help.

[katana]

Nice Kaskara,
I am intrigued with the diamond patterning on the hilt.....very similar to one I own. As to the reference to the 3rd Crusade ....it was falsely believed that some crusader swords had become re-hilted as Kaskara

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=kaskara

Kind Regards David

[Jim McDougall]

Nice example Longfellow! and as David has well noted, the notion that kaskaras were typically carrying blades from the crusades is possibly key in the note on the string tag, as it is a quite old 'chestnut' perhaps indicating this one is from a very old collection.
It is known that some old European blades did indeed often occur on kaskaras but those as far as I have known were quite rare and those blades disappeared into collections back in the 19th century. More modern European blades exported into North Africa during the 19th century and even in degree into the early 20th were well known.

This blade appears to be a native made product of the triple fuller type which was seen throughout trade routes linking Sudanese and often Saharan regions and is possibly of the period around 1890s or more likely into the pre WWI period. The hilt characterizes style associated most with Darfur with the lozenge pattern silverwork and discoid pommel.
Swords of this form became produced in more modern times around 1960s in Kasalla, but I think this is an early example from pre WWI, possibly as late as 1920s. Is the string tag note an old one?

[longfellow]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... but I think this is an early example from per WWI, possibly as late as 1920s. Is the string tag note an old one?

Hello Jim,

Thank you for the information and the timeframe. I'm afraid that the best I can guarantee is that the string tag was affixed around the hilt in 1975. He usually made a date notation and a few words when he acquired a piece. The dust and tobacco discoloration vouches for that long, though.

It wouldn't be so hard with a lot of the things he collected if we had lived other than in Santa Barbara. SB was the place where you went to the yearly 'Treasure Sale' put on by the MOA and picked up an 8' tall Tiffany
grandfather clock (which he still has). Many from LA/Hollywood and NY had a 'little place' there and many collections found their way there. This is one reason I truly appreciate the help of the knowledgeable folks, like you, on this forum.

[Jim McDougall]

Southern California was a hotbed for collectors in the 60s and 70s! I grew up there in those days and among some of the venerable old collectors and dealers, there were very old collections coming out in estate sales and auctions in huge numbers. Further, and even more exciting, many of the older movie studios began to decaccess thier props and items used in films for many decades. In the early days, movie studios acquired huge volumes of authentic antique items, which in those days were just 'old junk'. This included incredibly many authentic old weapons, which were used in many of the swashbuckling and battle scenes in historically themed productions, now of course classics.
Rudolf Valentino himself became an enthusiastic sword collector, undoubtedly from the amazing examples that would often appear on the sets of his movies.

As noted, your kaskara appears thankfully to be untouched and as such, clearly static in collections or stored for quite some time. It is unclear exactly when this diamond type motif and the discoid pommels became popular, but we know they were in Darfur and at the time of Ali Dinar, who was killed by British forces in 1916. These apparantly became quite popular with Hadendoa and associated tribes in later years, but the style seems generally held to be from Darfur and Kordofan regions. The triple fuller blade is distinctly native in form, probably Hausa, and should have small crescent moons stamped at the base of the outside fullers.

All the best,
Jim

[Iain]

This thread contains some nice info on these diamond pattern hilts as well.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13142

The triple fuller blade is distinctly native in form, probably Hausa, and should have small crescent moons stamped at the base of the outside fullers.

Hi Jim, this blade looks a little heavier than most native takouba blades I've seen. But of course photos can be deceiving. Unfortunately while I've found a lot of good period accounts regarding trade and blades within the western Sahel things drop off a bit trying to find out more about connections between the blade industries in places like Kano and how that translated to kaskara in places like Wadia, Darfur and Sennar. Bornu was the buffer state between these Sudanese states and the Hausa states.

There are some remarks in Clapperton of course regarding caravans bring down swords "that once belonged to Malta". These were transported to Kano, rehilted and sold all over the "desert and interior".

There is also an intriguing reference from the same source to "African swords" from Tatham - who would appear to have been Henry Tatham - a sword cutler to the Crown. Unfortunately there are no more details on the form of these swords. One assumes they were made and specially brought along as gift items.

Denham tells much the same story as Clapperton.

"The swords are broad, straight, and long, but require
no particular description, as, by a vicissitude some
what singular, they are in fact the very blades
formerly wielded by the knights of Malta. These
swords are sent from Malta to Bengazee, in the
state of Tripoli, where they are exchanged for bul-
locks. They are afterwards carried across the de-
sert to Bomou, thence to Haussa, and at last re-
mounted at Kano, for the use of the inhabitants of
almost all central Africa."

Sad indeed they felt it was not necessary to have a detailed description! How much of these were in fact knightly blades from Malta is hard to say although by the time Barth turned up in the early 1850s, only around 20 years later - he had no hesitation in identifying the great number of imported blades he encountered as being from Solingen.