Dagger with sheath · Namibia, Ovambo · ID: 3040855
sold
EUR 4,200
Provenance
Reinhold Kloppe, Windhoek, Namibia / Swinemünde-Harzgerode, GermanyGerda Wilhelmine Emilie Kloppe, (1919 Windhoek, Namibia - 1994 Swinemünde-Harzgerode, Germany)
Reinhold Kloppe (born 1882 in Harzgerode) was a government official in Brakwater, a district Windhoek. Exactly when the family returned to Germany and if it was by the end of German colonial rule or later, is not documented. We only have a certified translation of the birth certificate from 1942 of his daughter Gerda Wilhelmine Emilie Kloppe, who was born in 1919 in Windhoek, during the time that German Southwest was under a South African mandate. When the family returned to Germany, they brought presents from the Nama and Ovambo in their luggage with them.
Size
H: 19 cm
L: 12 cm (dagger)
H: 7.5 inch
L: 4.7 inch (dagger)
Description
flat semicircular wooden sheath, entirely wrapped with copper wire, bottle neck-shaped upper end and lower rim coated with copper sheet, small dagger with metal blade and wooden handle, wrapped with copperwire, resp. -sheet as well, carved eyelet on the backside for attachment to a belt, slightly dam., small traces of corrosion;
daggers of that kind were badges of royal herdsman worn at a belt around the hips. In former times they represented special awards granted by the chief of the Ondonga tribe.