Dagger with sheath · Namibia, Ovambo · ID: 3040855
Gerda 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.
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.
The object Dagger with sheath with the object ID 3040855 was last part of the auction 84th Tribal Art Auction at November 5, 2016 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 510 achieved a sales price of EUR 4,200.
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