Saturday, March 10, 2012
Unusual takouba in the collections page
Rob Green was kind enough to submit his unusual iron pommel takouba for display on this site. This is an interesting sword with a single fuller native blade and flat iron pommel.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Beautiful brass hilted takouba
From Charles S I have kindly received permission to exhibit his likely Hausa brass hilted takouba. This is a high quality sword in fantastic mounts.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
20th century Tuareg sword added to the collections
Next in our series of additions from Chris Topping, a likely Tuareg takouba. Not a particularly old sword, probably early to mid 20th century, but it exhibits an interesting blade mount and what seems to be a hammer finished blade.
Friday, January 6, 2012
My Precious makes it onto the collections page
I hinted at this piece before, but now the full write up and photos are available. The dating and analysis intentionally verge on conservative, it’s very easy to get overly excited by a piece like this and I would like present as balanced a view as possible. So, without further ado, I am proud to present a takouba with a fine old hilt and a genuine Medieval, likely last quarter of the 14th century, blade. This was not something made for the African market in Solingen as an export item, this is the real deal, a Medieval blade which doubtless was owned by someone of reasonably high rank and status that eventually found it’s way into the interior of Africa. As to how that happened, a few ideas and possibilities are presented in the full write up.
This is the sword of a lifetime for me and confirmation that some very old blades did indeed find their way into the Sahel, holding something in your hands that is not only 600 odd years old but also from the period that sparked my childhood interest in swords, is a very special thing.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Likely Nupe Sword in the Collections
Next in our series of additions from Chris Topping, a likely nupe takouba. The decorative patterns seem to match other Nupe work and the sword features a very nice older style oval pommel a nice and hard to find sword.
