Shield - Tanzania, Kerewe

light wood, residues of colour pigments (bright blue and red), plant fibre, old collection label: "68243 - L.1035 / 7th - Schild UKerewe - Major Kollmann", handwritten inscription on the object: "68243. - UKerewe.- Kollmann. - L.1035/7" and "68243" in third place, traces of old age

This extremely decorative shield is a rare type that has probably not been produced since the 1940s (Phillips, 1996, p. 159).

Another shield of the Kerewe, which was collected by Kollmann in 1897, can be found in the holdings of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna (Weltmuseum Wien / inventory no. 60751 / AHDRC 0119956 ).
H: 140 cm, H: 55,1 inch

Provenance:
Generalmajor Karl Paul Kollmann (1865-1923), Dresden, Germany
Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Germany
Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany (1970, by exchange)
Munich Private Collection

Karl Paul Kollmann was born in Leipzig on 9 July 1865. At the age of twenty-one, he embarked on a military career and joined the Electoral Saxon Army. In 1894 he joined the Schutztruppe for German East Africa. He undertook numerous research trips to areas around Lake Victoria. In his book "The Victoria Nyanza", published in 1899, he writes: " ...on my numerous excursions and expeditions west, south and east of the lake I had the most favourable opportunities to make extensive and valuable collections of all kinds...". He also reported that he owed it to museum director Felix von Luschan that he was able to bring the objects to Europe. Kollmann had worked for several months at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1893, where Luschan introduced him to the ethnology of the German colonies. He was also in contact with Karl Weule and Bernhard Ankermann, who viewed and organised his collection in Berlin.
After his promotion to captain in March 1900, Kollmann returned to Germany, where he remained in military service until shortly before his death in 1923.

Lit.: Phillips, Tom (Hg.), Afrika, Die Kunst eines Kontinents, Berlin 1996, p. 159, Ill. 2.45
Zirngibl, Manfred A. & Dieter Plaschke, Afrikanische Schilde, München 1992, p. 78, ill. 67
Condition Report: See description