Late 19th C. African Bafia Iron Potato Masher Currency
West Africa, Cameroon, Centre Region, Bafia tribe, ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. A hefty club-shaped iron potato masher known as an ensuba. The stocky head has a flat pounding face on the bottom and a tapered conical handle on top that was easy to grip due to the coarse iron surfaces. Ensuba like this example were used as currency for rare, unusual, or highly symbolic transactions. The cost of thirty ensubas was the necessary price for a man to 'purchase' a wife from her father. Size: 3.9" W x 16.25" H (9.9 cm x 41.3 cm)
Cf. Opitz, Charles J. "An Ethnographic Study of Traditional Money: A Definition of Money and Descriptions of Traditional Money." First Impressions Printing, Inc., Florida, 2000, p. 141, second from top.
Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, acquired in the early 2000s
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#154851
Condition Report: Abrasions and coarse surfaces commensurate with age, otherwise intact and very good. Nice iron patina throughout.
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West Africa, Cameroon, Centre Region, Bafia tribe, ca. late 19th to early 20th century CE. A hefty club-shaped iron potato masher known as an ensuba. The stocky head has a flat pounding face on the bottom and a tapered conical handle on top that was easy to grip due to the coarse iron surfaces. Ensuba like this example were used as currency for rare, unusual, or highly symbolic transactions. The cost of thirty ensubas was the necessary price for a man to 'purchase' a wife from her father. Size: 3.9" W x 16.25" H (9.9 cm x 41.3 cm)
Cf. Opitz, Charles J. "An Ethnographic Study of Traditional Money: A Definition of Money and Descriptions of Traditional Money." First Impressions Printing, Inc., Florida, 2000, p. 141, second from top.
Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, acquired in the early 2000s
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#154851
Condition Report: Abrasions and coarse surfaces commensurate with age, otherwise intact and very good. Nice iron patina throughout.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
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