Miniature Asymmetrical Knife
Luba / Songye, D.R. Congo
Iron (one solid piece)
Late 19th / early 20th century

This small solid-iron knife is described by Westerdijk as a "work knife," and he elaborates (but possibly speculates) that it was used for circumsicions and scarification. As there so few examples to compare it to, making definitive statements about its meaning and function seems problematic. The only other example I have unearthed was auctioned in 1904 (Oldman, Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens, 1976). 

It was constructed very carefully, with a solid geometric handle and triangular groups of incisions. 

Published in H. Westerdijk, Ijzerwerk van Centraal-Afrika, 1975. From the author's private collection. 

7.5 in :: 19 cm

InventoryID #13-1403

SOLD