afican or indian

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by napoleon

well its a nice thing is it an ashanti piece ?regards napoleon

Actually Napoleon that was a well placed guess, there is a striking similarity between weapons of West Africa and forms found in the North Indian, Nepal regions and there have been many instances of misclassification. I once researched a short sword from Dahomey known as a 'hwi', which had originally been classified in a collection as coming from Tibet due to the similarity in hilt and brasswork. Apparantly the source for the error was in an old catalog from about 1908 and optimistic suggestion the piece had come from the Younghusband campaign into Tibet. Often items grouped together end up being presumed from the same area when being catalogued.

The matter was resolved when I found an identical example to the piece in the collection in a museum in Belgium, and provenanced to a French officer in Dahomey in 1857.

In any case, I very much appreciate you joining in...there are far too many lurking out there who are afraid to offer suggestions claiming they do not have enough knowledge on topics.....we're all here learning together, and we need more like you who dive in and comment! Thank you and nice work!!!

27, welcome aboard!!! Thank you for joining us and for posting this interesting item!!

All the very best,
Jim