40133

Fan (Fang) Tribe Bikei Miniature Axes

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
Fan (Fang) Tribe Bikei Miniature Axes

Lot: 40133
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Title: Fan (Fang) Tribe Bikĕi Miniature Axes
Description: Mary Kingsley visited the Fan (or Fang) Tribe at the end of the 19th century, collecting ivory and rubber "to exchange with the rich men of the village for a very peculiar and interesting form of coinage—bikĕi—little iron imitation axe-heads which are tied up in bundles called ntet, ten going to one bundle, for with bikĕi must the price of a wife be paid....These bikĕi pass, however, as common currency among the Fans..." (quoted in Quiggin, p. 71); Quiggin Fig. 16 (though she mentions bundles of "ten" axes, the example Mary Kingsley collected, now in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, has only three, as does this lot—"ten" is apparently an error for three or twelve). See Opitz, pp. 141-42 (this lot illustrated, p. 142). Extremely rare and desirable.
Low Estimate: 200
High Estimate: 300
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