Zemanek-Münster

Rare shield

Tanzania, Area of Sotik and Kisii
sold EUR 7,500
Provenance
collected in situ, Fort Moschi, Tanzania (1895-1901) by Otto Körner.
Otto Körner (1868-1950) was purser of the “Kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika”, between 1892 and 1894 he was stationed in Dar-es-Sallam and between 1895 to 1901 in Fort Moschi. He and Captain Johannes were among the earliest summiters of the Kilimanjaro in 1898.
Size
H: 91 cm
H: 35.8 inch

Description

leather, remains of pigments, decorative lines worked into the front (can only be found on shields of the tribes living south of the Nile region), at the back a wooden middle rib with the handle, min. dam., traces of usage.
Two similar shields are ascribed to the area of the Sotik and Kisii (a hilly region east of Lake Victoria on the border between Kenya and Tanzania) according to the inventory of the Viennese Museum of Ethnology. Widenmann refers in his book “Die Kilimandscharo-Bevölkerung” (1899) to this type as “Rombo” shields.


Comparing literature

Zirngibl, Manfred A. & Dieter Plaschke, Afrikanische Schilde, München 1992, p. 34

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