A nice puzzle

Flavio · 20th February 2006, 04:36 PM

Hello. I had this axe for a few and i really don't know how to interpret it

. As you can see from pics the entire axe seems to be shona or zulu (if zulu have never used axes!), but if the handle is clearly handmate and african in origin, the blade has the stamp on a side "W. Marples and Sons" and clearly seems made with machinery and not handmate. Now i find on the web that this company produced instruments from job, like saws, chisels, blades from job in general, around late 800 - early 900 in England. So maybe this could be an example of blades exported in south Africa from English and sold to the native populations. What do you think?

20th February 2006, 04:36 PM	#1
Flavio Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Italia Posts: 1,243	A nice puzzle Hello. I had this axe for a few and i really don't know how to interpret it . As you can see from pics the entire axe seems to be shona or zulu (if zulu have never used axes!), but if the handle is clearly handmate and african in origin, the blade has the stamp on a side "W. Marples and Sons" and clearly seems made with machinery and not handmate. Now i find on the web that this company produced instruments from job, like saws, chisels, blades from job in general, around late 800 - early 900 in England. So maybe this could be an example of blades exported in south Africa from English and sold to the native populations. What do you think? Attached Images