Exceptional wedding knife/dowry TETELA - DR Congo

- Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Tribe name: TETELA
- Material: Red copper
- Dimensions (mm): 403x320x120
- Weight (g): 460
- Shipping method: Colissimo + Insurance

KNIVES/SCEPTRES TETELA (Red copper)

Very rare objects in their current state as they were made of copper and melted more easily than bronze or iron coins to create other objects.
Their various shapes (knife/longswords or simple figurative coins depicting a weapon such as a knife – reference to spear points of the same ethnicity – strength and power in war as in hunting) indicated that they were used for marriage dowries. The future groom did not “buy a wife” but presented a gift to the bride’s parents.
The double blades signified the union of the spouses. The double-bladed sceptres, even rarer, were mounted on a wooden or iron shaft and were carried by the fetishes during the ceremony and the consecration of this union.