1969.S.193 Ceremonial adze

This wooden adze is decorated with hammered designs on small copper alloy (brass) plates covering the butt and narrow bands wound around the shaft. The long iron blade is encrusted with strips of copper in geometric designs.

An adze is a tool artists use to carve wood into masks, figures, containers, the handles of weapons, and other objects. This tool is distinguished from an axe by its blade, which is set at right angles to the handle. A decorated blade on an adze indicates the object is a nonfunctional ceremonial object. On ceremonial occasions, a chief would carry it over his shoulder.

Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2015.

n.d.: Stillman Collection, New York

1969: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Eugene and Margaret McDermott, purchased from above [1]

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Catalogue Worksheet in the Collections Records object file.

[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

Apply to objects where number equals 1969.S.193