North African dagger?

[katana]

Wow.....very nice dagger Congoblades. I have seen similar on eBay.....not as old as yours looks........but both were said to be Toureq. I think Tim might be onto something....many swords and knives from the North .....are described on eBay as Toureg.. ..even when they are clearly Baja, Hausa etc

[Congoblades]

Thanks Tim and Katana. Tim, the knobs are indeed close to your knive. I have not much experience with such kind of knives, I have one wich is a more typical Toeareg knive (a recent and toeristic one) and I see some resemblances to, not in the knobs but more in general, the way it is made. Indeed a shame missing the scabbard, maybe it would be more clear to see where it is from
Greets, Guy

[Congoblades]

Originally Posted by katana

....many swords and knives from the North .....are described on eBay as Toureg.. eg.. ..even when they are clearly Baja, Hausa etc

Katana, you are absolutly right about that, it's better to be a bit suspicion for what is offered on ebay and do you some research... before

[Tim Simmons]

Hello Guy, have you got the book- Armes traditionnelles d'Afrique. {dagues,poignards,glaives,epees,tranchets et couperets} Approche regionale et classification technique, morphologique et esthetique. Tristan Arbousse Bastide. It is very good. It must be Toureg from the SW. I will post another knife latter. This could be a good thread.

[Congoblades]

Hi Tim, I don't have the book, if you say it is very good I will look after it, saw it already on a quick google search, it is not expensive so I will manage the get it
I will also post one more, little different but very nice, Toeareg knive later, it's not mine.

[Tim Simmons]

An extract from the afore mentioned book showing the foot print of Toureg style daggers. As can be seen at the southern and south eastern edges many other groups of people would have to be included. It will be hard to sort the sub groups out.

[Emanuel]

Hi,

There is one such dagger presently listed on eBay (I will post the link once it's finished) with a sheath very similar to that of some takuba. What's surprising is that these knives seem to be of high quality, they show fine craftsmanship, not like the cheap tourist trinkets. I wonder how old this style is...similar to the telek in some respects, but not quite a telek...I like it. The luxury, as Tim remarked, would indicate that it was made to be seen, not concealed like the telek.
What's also striking is how similar the features of this knife are to the Tuareg jewellery...the same profusion of stacked geometric figures. Art deco is aptly put.

Emanuel

[Emanuel]

Here is a snipet from a thread in the old forum "Report from Agadez" that I think concerns these daggers:

In my earlier post concerning observations in Mali, I had mentioned the "heavy brass style" in Tuareg arms. I asked our guide, well traveled in the area, if he was aware of where it had originated from. He said that he was not. He also said that he believed it was possible that the worn gaudy edged weapons occasionally encountered may well have been made for tourists, but caught a local eye, and hence came to have a sort of legitimacy as an ethnographic edged weapon.

The picture is gone now, but perhaps our host Lee Jones could confirm whether his report concerns the knives above?

Emanuel