Sunday 7 April 2019

Wooden Dancing Knife- Object A.013

Object A.013 of the UCL Ethnographic Collection is a wooden knife which can be broadly described as being comprised of two parts, a handle and a blade. The handle and the blade were both carved from a single piece of wood and have had addition decorative features engraved onto the surface (this can be seen in figures 1). This decoration is comprised of parallel lines which have been carved along the perimeter of the blade, and in circles around the handle. The object has a length of 430mm and the widest part of the blade measures 148mm. This object has been attributed to the Bushongo people of the Congo. The object was also collected during the time that the Belgian Congo existed, which dated the object to the late 19th or early 20th century.
Figure 1 View of the anterior surface of object A.013 (Photo Credit: B.Potts, 04/03/2019)
The knife has most commonly been attributed as a ‘dancing knife’ during its history, the first mention of this was when the object was sold by the family of Henry Pareyn (Wellcome Library, 1929). In these auction records, it was described as the knife of the costume of a chef, which would have been worn during performances by tribe members.
This object has four main phases of its biography. The object was created and used by the Bushongo people, whose history can be traced back to AD500, and were known around the region for their skill in wood carving (Werner, 1912). At some point, the knife was acquired by Sir Henry Pareyn, a renowned collector of the late 19th century (British Museum, 2019). The knife was then bought by the Wellcome Collection, and accessioned in October 1932, it was at this point that the area of loss on the blade was first described (Wellcome Library, 1931/1932). In the 1950s, the object was then acquired by UCL Ethnography.  
Figure 2 The white area is the adhesive on the blade under ultraviolet light. (Photo credit: W, Mastandrea, 04/03/2019.)
The object is in overall a good condition, however there is one main area of loss on the blade (this can be seen in figure 1). This break has been interpreted as being old, as it was mentioned in the Wellcome accession records. In addition, there is evidence of the presence of adhesives on both the posterior and anterior of the blade (see figure 2 for the mark on the anterior of the blade). This has been interpreted as evidence of old information labels for the object, which have since been removed. Apart from these two main issues, the object has a few small abrasion marks (seen under ultraviolet light in figure 3). These have been interpreted as either evidence of use wear, or improper storage and transport conditions.
Figure 3 View of the abrasion mark on the handle, it is the brighter area on the top of the handle. (Photo credit: W, Mastandrea, 04/03/2019)

Bibliography
British Museum, (2019). Henry Pareyn: Biographical Details. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=36729. (Accessed: 29/03/2019).
Wellcome Historic Medical Museum and Library, (1931-1932) Museums Accession Register Vol 14. 42541 (91231)-53532. (34 vols). Wellcome Library: London. Available at: https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b18772821#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.7701%2C-0.0797%2C2.5403%2C1.5936
Wellcome Library, (1928) Art Negre du Congo. Wellcome Library: London. Available at: https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b18409052#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&z=-0.3007%2C0.143%2C1.4365%2C0.9012
Werner, A. (1912). The Bushongo. Journal of Royal African Society 11(42). 

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