Tabouka ? blade markings - makers mark ?

[Emanuel]

Hello Dugsey,

In his "report from Timbuktu" (I think that's the thread) Dr.Lee mentionned piles of newly made and somewhat old takoubas. Forum member Dom also said he saw them newly-made and sold to tourists. You certainly have a native blade but likely not one that was meant for a fight. That said, I saw a documentary recently on the Hausa (or more likely the Fulani) and they were shown sharpening their takoubas. The blades were very thin and extremely flexible, and they looked like the modern ones. I think these are still being produced both for tourists and local use as personal apparel for tribal dances/ceremonies/maybe even fights. I don't think yours is older than WWII, can't prove it though.

As for value...I don't know what real value would be. on eBay bids will fluctuate wildly. Dealers will ask for a lot. Since yours has the tassels intact it may fetch a nice price even if it's all leather, who knows. There have been many of eBay that sold for peanuts, mostly the cheap new ones. I have never seen any piece on eBay or anywhere else, comparable in quality to those shown by Dr.Lee in his article.
I guess you can always list yours as a Sudanese kaskara on eBay and have the price go up . Could you post pics?

Regards,
Emanuel

[Henk]

Emanuel????

Talking about money on this enlighted forum?????

Moderators, this fellow should be punished!!!!!!

[Emanuel]

Quite right Henk

I had already edited my post to only say what I paid for it and sold I guess I'll remove that as well.

[Lee]

From your pictures, which I have taken the liberty of quoting below, I would opine that this is a genuine ethnographic specimen of fairly typical quality. The pommel does appear to have some age and is of an older form. The leather looks somewhat newer than that age from the photo, but aging would be less out of the Sahara and photos may be quite deceptive. (Indeed our tour leader on one of the trips cautioned that leather work that had been in that environment for 5 years would often appear to have an age of 50 years.)

That harsh environment is not one that leads to accumulation of much material wealth and fairly simple takoubas such as this one seem to be what is actually worn on a daily basis out in the desert.

The silver mounted ones I have pictured are, I suspect, a fairly recent silversmith's innovation in response to greater wealth among urbanized Tuareg; I doubt any that I have seen were assembled longer ago than 20 years. However, while these swords are new, the blades contained within them are often old heirlooms (for example, the 21st century sword in the logo above is built around a 17th century blade of European origin).

[dugsey]

Hey Guys

Many thanks for all the help and information, and yes Emanuel, I will post some more pictures when I get back from holiday in a weeks time. Am a bit pressed for time at the moment !