Nguni? axe
 

It is all go this bank holiday weekend in the UK. First the spurs for less than a big mac. Then today in the pouring rain at a junk market, out of the poorly attended and general misery I plucked this little cutie. I paid more than I wanted to but at least one dealer went home with some money. Interesting that there are traces of silver? grey metallic paint at the handle end. There from the beginning. This is not the first time I have found traces of painting on African weapons. Total length 50cm Blade tip to tip 25.5cm

Looks a nice axe, probably Bornu (Northern Nigeria/Cameroon)...The small iron ring at the end of the blade is typical.

Regards

Thanks Colin. My axe has the same style decoration to one side of the blade as in this example.

Sweet axe Tim :) .


Lew

Thanks Lew. Much appreciated as I spent rather a lot on this piece. It can be seen that there is certainly age to the axe, especially when one thinks of the end of Bornu sovereignty in the south Sahara . :cool:

Who could say the axe is not from Kano?