West African ? sword for I.D. and comment.

[colin henshaw]

First class Iain, and good references too...

A few points :-

The scabbards on this type of sword/cutlass from West Africa I have seen, are usually pointed, following the shape of the blade, but this one has a square end, sometimes seen on Cameroon weapons - any ideas on this ?

Do you think the sheath style can be a date indicator, can you elaborate ?

So, would you say the blade is made in Europe or Africa ? If in Europe, where would you think - Germany ? Any pointers as to how to recognise a European blade and an African-made blade ?

Regards.

Originally Posted by Iain

It's Mandingo - a style popular with the sub-population in modern day Liberia.

Reference: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypld...472807&imageID...

I like this one, often the blades are not of particularly high quality. This one looks quite nice. The example I linked above is from 1906, I know of at least one other that was collected from the same period, but your scabbard makes me think that at least that, is later work. The blade certainly seems to have the age to be turn of the century though.

Here's a chap from the same region holding a similar sword: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypld...=0&print=small

The half moon mark is found rather widely and the blade trade flowing from and through the Hausa city states and then into West African no doubt helped to proliferate the mark as a sign of quality.

Other Sahel influences are clear on the scabbard, where the leather has been formed to mimic the brass throat with cutouts of a typical takouba scabbard.

Cheers,

Iainhttp://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypld...20&pNum=&pos=9

[Iain]

Hi Colin,

I should preface by saying this is far out of my area of specialty - but I'll give it a shot!

The scabbard I thought could be later because a) the material is in great shape, no small feat for a tribal weapon in probably less than optimal storage conditions, b) the simplicity of the design. Even the work from Cameroon (I imagine you are thinking of Tikar scabbards?) is usually well formed, your scabbard strikes me as slightly crude on the bottom chape, no offense meant by that observation of course. Given that the sword is clearly Mandingo and corresponds to a type we have some records on and since the Mandingo are not, to my knowledge found in large numbers in Cameroon I'm fairly confident the sword is not from there.

That said, I don't know really if the scabbard is later or older. It may just be very well preserved! It was more or less a guess based on the rather basic design and fittings and the fact that older pieces seem, from what I can tell in photos, to have had more elaborate fittings and leather molding. So it was more or less a guess since it didn't match up with the examples I knew of collected in the early 1900s. So short answer, I don't really know.

The blade... very hard to say unless I have it in hand. I'm not even 100% always sure with takouba. I tend to assume though that anything I am unsure about is native. Native blades seem to usually have a lower carbon content and less flex. My guess is a soft blade was considered preferable to a brittle blade failure. Is the blade single edged? The placement of the fullers reminds me of export blades for nimchas from Italy (not centered on the blade, but higher). But I would then expect a more substantial spine. So my best guess is good native work.

So in summary, I am suspicious of the scabbard mainly because it doesn't confirm to the normal examples, but I have nothing firm to go on to indicate it is not "old". The blade is obviously quality workmanship but I don't immediately recognize a known European pattern - hopefully those more in the know will chime in at this point. Sadly my studies have been in such a narrow field I tend to get out of my depth quickly in other topics!

Cheers,

Iain