Thank you all Getlemen, for this on-going flow of postings.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
... Although there are compelling suggestions to what creature this pommel might be, without a provenanced example to corroborate where exactly this sword might be from, we cannot be certain ...
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Your'e quite right, Jim; but let me quote the whole info provided by Ashoka Arts, in its commercial site, about this piece's origin:
19th century Dogon sword from village of Bamba Mali, it was purchased from Samba Kamissoko in 1998. Clearly influenced by the shape of European military swords of the period, this piece has a cast bronze hilt in the stylised form of an animal with knucleguard and downturned quillon. Complete with its leather scabbard. 32 inches approximately. 19th century or earlier, Mali/Sahel.
My i then admit that, untill contrary evidence, this is a Dogon work; at least and so far, i haven't yet registered vivid opposition to that, from the posting members ... if i'm not mistaken.
... and, as Jim reminds, an (unusual) piece of regalia; possibly having belonged to a Dogon big shot ... if not made to trade with the white man ?!
In the meantime i browsed the Net on the Dogon; they are said to descend from the Egiptions, and are a tribe that exists since 3000 BC ... whether a fact or a legend.
I have also had an opinnion that the misterious animal in the pommel could be a crocodile. This is not at all unplausible, both because its shape is not so distant frrom a croc skull, and also due to these reptiles being sacred to Dogons.
I have read that,when they find a dead crocodile, they take it and bury it like a human in their graveyards up in the caves in the cliffs.
So the riddle continues unsolved ... or not ?
Fernando
Attached a Dogon crocodile mask
.