African Three-Dagger sets

[katana]

I posted this quote before..which suggests the souvenier trade was rife.....unfortunately the link no longer works ,

"....In the Sudan, Major E A De Cosson who served with Sir Gerald Graham's field force at Suakin in April 1888 noted how the local inhabitants entrepreneurially met the demand for souvenirs and war trophies. On the day the expedition was brought to a close, he 'rode into the town in the evening and found the streets thronged with officers buying souvenirs. The native population are waking up to the fact that money is to be made and the women and children offering their silver bangles for sale; shields and swords have run up to ?£5 a piece, and spears to ?£2 or ?£3. There is a little Italian who keeps a curiosity shop, a sort of niche in a wall, and he had new spears manufactured every day. They say an armourer on one of the ships turned an honest penny by making a lot of spear-heads and having them mounted, and that a batch of "real Soudan spears" has already been sent out from Birmingham.'

http://www.michaelstevenson.com/africanart/essay.htm

Regards David

[Iain]

Great reference and quote David! Many thanks for posting it, I hadn't run across it before.

The original link may be dead but the Way Back Machine has it!
http://web.archive.org/web/200802071...nart/essay.htm

[Lew]

As promised here are two higher quality examples courtesy of Charles.

[ariel]

The last one is dated 1125, ie 1713.
Mind if I express mild degree of disbelief? :-)

[Lew]

Ariel

Most of these amourers or their apprentices were probably ilitarate so I'm not surprised