Nice Mangbetu Knife for Comment
 

Picked this up today comments welcome. :) Is it early 20th or late 19th century?



Lew

Lew,

It's a nice piece. I have one very similar and have often wondered about it's age, i.e 19th or 20th Cent.

Is that an Iv--y ( big long tooth-like object from a certain large mammal) hilt ? If it is, it certainly looks as though it has a lot of age to it.

A friend of mine has recently pointed out that the 19th and 20th centuries are only a couple of minutes apart :D So why worry ?

He is not a collector so does not understand these things.

I have seen them listed as both and as they must have been made over quite a long period I think it would be almost impossible to tell without real provenance, which I do not have for mine.

Regards
Royston

Royston

The hilt is wood and has a lovely patina. As far as age 1890s-1930 is a big gap certain style blades and hilt forms change slightly in style and over all quality as the older more skilled smiths died off their apprentices who replaced them did not have the same level of craftsmanship.

Lew

Looking good.

Nice one Lew.I have had in hands a lot of Mangbetu sickle knives when I wrote this book:http://lulef.free.fr/html/livres.html
Your knife has a specific large appendage (often with hexagonal inverted cone) on the back and the hand made hilt (not turned) make me think of a knife from 1900 / 1920 .
The knives with ivory hilt are not all from 19th, they were made until 1930/1940 for belgian settler, but the works is different.
Luc