Lew Waldman's Ethnographic Arms & Armour Collection Archive


1009 - African Machete or Sword with Brass Wire Decorated Hilt & Leather Scabbard

The single-edged blade is 21¼ inches (53.7 cm) in length with a thickness of 0.118 inches (0.3 cm) and a shallow fuller on each side near the back of a blade that widens just before a squared-off end. A stamped numeral '2' is present on one face of the blade. The wooden hilt has been intricately wrapped with brass wire with a circular motif over the pommel and forward aspect. The scabbard is made of brown leather (in a fashion reminiscent of a takouba scabbard, to include the remains of the insertions of two long perished integral straps.) The blade shows a few small nicks and patchy areas of old corrosion and there is some deterioration of the leather at the tip. Though it is clearly old and at least early 20th Century, Lew left no notes for this item and I would appreciate suggestions as to its origin. Overall length in the scabbard is 27¾ inches (70 cm) with a weight of 18 ounces (520 grams).




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