Zande currency blade

Zande currency blade
Other views of this artifact:


Accession Number:
1898.61.1
Country:
Sudan , Congo, Democratic Republic of
Region:
[Southern Sudan?]
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1897
Materials:
Iron Metal
Process:
Forged (Metal) , Hammered
Dimensions:
L = 346 mm, Max W = 209 mm (across shoulders), W base = 94.8 mm. W top handle = 47 mm, Th metal = 0.5 to 10.5 mm [RTS 15/6/2004].
Weight:
882.3 g
Other Owners:
Supposedly collected by John Frederick Calvert, and purchased from Stevens Auction Rooms at a sale on 8th December 1897 [see notes field; RTS 15/6/2004].
Field Collector:
John Frederick Calvert
PRM Source:
Stevens Auction Rooms
Acquired:
Purchased December 8 1897
Collected Date:
By 1897 [1857?]
Description:
Spade blade, probably made from two pieces of iron hammered flat and welded together. The blade has a flat upper and lower surface, and is shaped like a broad arrow in plan view, with a blunt point curving out to convex sides that taper to form two rounded wings; in the centre, a separate iron bar has been added to form a tang. This would normally be bent around to create a socket, but has been left flat, with a rectangular body splaying out to a flat base. This supports the suggestion that this object was intended for use as currency, rather than as a working agricultural tool. There are clear hammering marks across the surface, and a thicker bulge on both sides where tang and blade have been joined. The object is complete and intact, although there are some minor nicks along the edges; the metal is still a light silvery gray colour in places, but most of the surface has now changed to a rusty red colour (Pantone 476C). It is 346 mm long, and measures 209 mm across the width of the shoulders, 94.8 mm across the base, and 47 mm across the top of the 'handle'. The metal varies in thickness from 0.5 at the edges, to 10.5 mm where the blade and tang have been joined. It has a weight of 882.3 grams.

Supposedly collected by John Frederick Calvert, and purchased from Stevens Auction Rooms at a sale on 8th December 1897. Research on Calvert by
his biographer, Michael P. Cooper, has shown that he was known as a gold miner and collector, who supposedly had 3000 ethnographical specimens which he had collected himself during an expedition with a private company to look for gold in Zande territory in 1857. However Calvert is known to have invented numerous stories about his own exploits, so this expedition may not have taken place, and it is possible that the objects were acquired by other means. As Petherick, Mansfield Parkyns and others were collecting in Zande country from around the same time as Calvert’s ‘visit’ (and selling them on from the 1860's), it is quite possible that similar material was available for purchase in the auction rooms of the day. Calvert’s own ethnographic material was auctioned by Stevens in several lots (8th November, 29th November, 8th December 1897, and 5-6th July 1898). E.G. Allingham ( Romance of the Rostrum, 1924) states that Calvert’s collection included items from Bongo country, so wherever he obtained it, his Sudanese material may have been of mixed cultural origins, rather than solely Zande.

Museum files contain a copy of part of a pamphlet about Calvert’s collection, published sometime between 1890 and 1897, in which are mentioned “Neam Nam. Implements, between thirty and forty years ago. These cannibal races of Central Africa were visited and a very large collection obtained from them. Their work was very good; the arrow heads are most elaborate. At that time no intercourse with civilised nations allowed them to obtain iron; all they had to rely upon was Meteoric Falls.” This is assumed to have been written by John Calvert or his son Albert F. Calvert (information provided by Michael P. Cooper).

A piece of spade blade currency of similar form is illustrated by Boccassino, used by the Acholi as currency (p. 231 fig. 40, bottom).

Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.

Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [BI, p. 94] - 1898. [insert] 61 [end insert] SALE AT STEVENS’ - Purch[ased]. at the J. Calvert sale, 8.12.97. (repaid to the curator Feb. 1898). [insert] 1-2 [end insert] - [One of] 2 large pieces of iron money (spade-blade shaped), Niam Niam tribe, Central Africa. 17/-.
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 94, ext to entry] - P. R. F. [item also has a blue ink tick beside it].

Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 2/2/2004].

Related Documents File
- RDF 1898.61.1 contains a series of emails and letters from Michael Cooper, dating from late 1997 to 1998, that provide biographical information on John Calvert. These indicate that Calvert was known as a gold miner and collector, who supposedly had 3000 ethnographical specimens which he had collected himself during an expedition with a private company to look for gold in Zande territory in 1857. However Calvert is known to have invented numerous stories about his own exploits, so this expedition may not have taken place, and it is possible that the objects were acquired by other means. As Petherick, Mansfield Parkyns and others were collecting in Zande country from around the same time as Calvert’s ‘visit’ (and selling them on from the 1860's), it is quite possible that similar material was available for purchase in the auction rooms of the day (e.g. Sotherby's, Stevens). Calvert’s own ethnographic material was auctioned by Stevens in several lots (8th November, 29th November, 8th December 1897, and 5-6th July 1898). E.G. Allingham (Romance of the Rostrum, 1924) states that Calvert’s collection included items from Dor [Bongo] country, so his African material may have been of mixed cultural origins, not solely Zande.
The RDF also contains a copy of part of a pamphlet about Calvert’s collection, published sometime between 1890 and 1897, in which are mentioned “Neam Nam. Implements, between thirty and forty years ago. These cannibal races of Central Africa were visited and a very large collection obtained from them. Their work was very good; the arrow heads are most elaborate. At that time no intercourse with civilised nations allowed them to obtain iron; all they had to rely upon was Meteoric Falls.” This is assumed to have been written by John Calvert or his son Albert F. Calvert [RTS 7/1/2004; all above information provided by Michael P. Cooper, Mineralist, and Museums Registrar for Nottingham City Museums and Art Gallery].

Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Iron 'SPADE-BLADE' MONEY. NIAM NAM, CEN. AFRICAL. J. Calvert coll. Purch. 1898 (Stevens) [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 15/6/2004].



 
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