Rare war shield ·  Kenya / Uganda · ID: 3046671

Description

hide/leather, wood, pigments,
A comparable shield located in the area west of Mount Kenya, published by Zirngibl (1992), p. 42, ill. 22. Another comparable shield illustrated in AHDRC (0134694) with the assignment Uganda/ Kenya.

An old watercolour by William Downing Webster (1863-1913) shows leather shields with very similar ornamental decoration. Here they were located to Uganda.

All three shields show the same design: the carrying pole, which is sewn to the shield body in the middle axis in a double vertical line by leather strips and the edge reinforcement by solid wooden hoops.

These features are also shown by the shields of the Masai in Kenya.

The object Rare war shield with the object ID 3046671 was last part of the auction 94th Tribal Art Auction at March 7, 2020 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 366 achieved a sales price of EUR 4,500.

You can find more Shields and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.

Comparing literature

Zirngibl, Manfred A. & Dieter Plaschke, Afrikanische Schilde, München 1992, p. 42, ill. 22