Rare Dagger of the Tetela with Huge Pommel

Tetela and Genya people from Congo as well as others, use daggers with a heavy diamond shaped pommel, mostly steel but other materials as the case here.  Numerous suggestions for the actual purpose of this heavy pommel were given: To drop knife from the height of a tree, or to improve the balance and increase the blow of the blade.  Both suggestions are non practical. The dagger is not balanced at all and the weight of the pommel diminish balancing. To drop it from the height of a tree is a very complicated task in the dense vegetation of the rain forest.

The heavy pommel is most probably a sign of status wealth and power, or for the use as currency. The existing exaggerated large pommels substantiate this assumption, as is the case in the dagger offered here. With the largest pommel we ever seen. Aluminum cast, weight of 2.35 Kg, 6 inches (15 cm) wide and 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) thick. Classical blade delicately incised with lines and geometrical design. and wood grip bound with copper strips. The pommel is marked with two sets of numbers, one black on white back ground (112-2011), and one older, printed number (1…6). If size matters – This one is the winner.

Blade 13 1/2 inches (34 cm) long. Total length 21 inches (53cm). Total weight 2.4 Kg. Very good condition. No scabbard. First half of the 20C. With an earlier blade.

Provenance:

-         Old UK private collection of tribal weapons

-         Probably earlier, as the printed numbers suggests, the collection of Pier Giorgio Cerrini (Brussels)