Recade, 19th century ·  Republic of Benin (former Kingdom of Dahomey), Region Abomey, Fon · ID: 3047106

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.

The object Recade, 19th century with the object ID 3047106 was last part of the auction 95th Tribal Art Auction at October 24, 2020 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 173 achieved a sales price of EUR 400.

Here you will find more objects and interesting facts about African art.

Comparing literature

Wilhelm, Gustav, Récaden aus der Sammlung Birgit Schlothauer und Gustav Wilhelm, Marl 2016, p. 6