Sugar Hammer, Tefedist or Tafadis
Tuareg, Mali / Niger / Algeria
German silver
20th century

The Tuareg used a hammer of special, often ornate form to break up pieces of sugar which they put in their tea. This elaborate example was cast, hammered, and then engraved. While most sugar hammers have adze blades (horizontal orientation), this unusual example has axe blades (vertical orientation) ("Sugar Hammer," Smithsonian, link). 

This piece is composed of solid silver-colored metal. While resembling silver, the metal is in fact "German silver," which is neither German nor silver. Also known as "nickel silver," this metal was composed typically of 60% copper, 20% zinc, and 20% nickel. The two white metals would effectively remove the color of the copper (even though they made up less than half of the composition) and create a silver-colored copper-based metal. 

An XRF (X-ray fluorescence) scan of this object confirmed its composition: 67.45% copper, 16.53% zinc, and 11.8% nickel.  

10.125 in :: 26 cm

InventoryID #13-2886

Price on Request