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Originally Posted by mercierarmory
Here is a better picture of the hilt. There is detail on only one side and there are grooves around both ends of the grip. I didn't notice it before due to the patina, but I believe there are both copper and brass plates as you mention. Of the three plates, the copper one is sandwiched between two brass.
Mike
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for the details. I have seen this pattern before - I'm not sure a particular ethnic attribution can be arrived at from it. I had one supposedly Lobi takouba that had it - but even though it was collected from them I am virtually positive it was not made by that ethnic group. With the mixture of brass and copper this could well be a Tuareg piece and the motifs on the scabbard seem more inclined towards this than Hausa.
On these brass guards it usually seems to be three styles of decoration - the four pointed element (image attached) or a cross hatch style (image also attached) and the last a sort of swirly design (also attached). There are of course plenty of variants within this and these are really only generalizations.
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A brief note on Dom's sword since it seems to have got some attention. Generally speaking I don't like to comment on something like age unless directly asked - so, the only thing I will say is, this particular pattern of blade decoration, with the many half circles, is a motif I have seen on Tuareg pieces. It is indeed common on modern knives and swords from the Tuareg. My focus is not Tuareg examples and I may well have missed out on some study examples that are older - but I don't recall seeing it on many takouba. This is certainly not intended as a negative observation.
Jim, I think you are onto something with the Reed reference -there are some similarities for sure. I will try to post the page from the article later.
Both of Dom's swords have very nice pommels!