of course the 'cleaner' ones like the runners are carrying are so bright because they repainted them as needed. the second one with the full head fur and the seme thru the belt had a 'well used' look, but was still showing remnants of the original colors. i remember seeing an old restored film of a masai lion hunt, the shields were big enough for the warrior to hide under if knocked over by a lion. see 2nd photo below.
this is what i meant by the childrens/tourist ones:
this is an old photo, i assume late 19th early 20thc.
p.s. - i updated the storage on the middle picture of the guy in the 'head fur' in my earlier post as it was not showing this morning...
a common theme i'm noting here is the 'real' ones, old and new have a number of points where the facing hide is tied to the backing/grip stick, which is enhanced on some of them by the painting, some dotted there or a zig-zag pattern. the touristy ones are only so tied just above and below the grip. the ones in the last black & white photo remind me of the roman auxilliary & cavalry shields of similar oval design and size.
my only shield is not african tho.
