Recade, 19th century
Republic of Benin (former Kingdom of Dahomey), Region Abomey, Fon
sold
EUR 400
Provenance
Karl Zeugner, Würzburg, GermanySize
L: 49 cm
L: 19.3 inch
Description
wood, metal,
Recades served the king’s representative to identify himself as the bearer of a royal message (“récadère”) and gave him of the authority appropriate to his function.
The sender of the message could be identified by the symbol attached to the recade.
The present example shows the symbol of the pineapple at the round end of the blade. It originally stands for King Agonglo (1789-1797) and is associated with the following proverb: “Thunder can destroy the palm tree, but never the pineapple plant”. With this, Agonglo wanted to express that he would always defeat his enemies.