Quote:
|
Originally Posted by TVV
Iain, thanks for the explanation, always good to learn more about these obscure swords and your posts here and on your web site have been a great source of knowledge.
Regards,
Teodor
|
Hi Teodor, I always enjoy sharing and appreciate when folks like yourself take the time to comment. As you say it's a bit obscure and somewhat of a lonely road collecting these!
One of the things I find the most interesting about them relates to the points I made above - they just don't fit well into the tribal oriented tendencies of most African arms collectors. IDing one is like someone gave you a Medieval European sword, told you the blade was German but that it could have been hilted anywhere in the continent and that there was no collection date, no details of where it had been found and zero period artwork to work with.
Takouba cover a similar range and provide similar frustrations. I can't say I've come any closer to pinning down precise attribution over the years, but I am least more comfortable with not being sure.
I have another one I was going to wait until I had in hand to show off, but I may as well do it here. It's a very old example with again a European blade. It has a couple rather unique features. First the tip retains the original form. Second the pommel rivet is a block and very well worked, rather than the usual little tang nub.
The blade has the Italian marca a mosca at the base and traces of an inlaid wolf further down.
I've been waiting a while to get this one in my hands! It's one of the more exciting ones to become available this year.