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Originally Posted by colin henshaw
I think these are of the same "made for sale " genre as other similarly constructed and decorated artefacts from West Africa, as discussed elsewhere on the forum. (spears, knives, covered tins etc). I believe they mainly emanate from the Sierra Leone area. Its possible the first horn shown once had a strip of leopard skin round the centre section ?
However, they can be of relatively early dates and might well have evolved from traditional forms.
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Yes, could be "modern-ish made" but a lot of time and effort has gone into their construction/decoration for a purely "tourist" market. There is also minute amounts of what looks like powder dust inside the one I have already received. The leather has also areas of significant "scuffing" which is unlikely to have been artificially done, but is rather due to wear in use.
The Mandinka people spread over a very large area of western Africa including Sierra Leone but appear mainly to inhabit Mali.
Yes it is very likely that the fabric covered section of the first flask was originally some sort of animal skin. The other one probably had a skin covered section also but this is now gone (or was never there).
Stu