FEATURE 106 FIG. 18 (below): Side and bottom of a tobacco mortar(?). Hippopotamus ivory. H: 10.2 cm. Collected by V. de Crombrugghe de Looringhe (1894). MRAC, EO.1959.28.179 (registered in 1959). © MRAC. Photo: J.-M. Vandyck. FIG. 16 (below): Spoon. Fang. Wood. L: 18.2 cm. Sold by E. Beer, 1976. MRAC, EO.1976.26.1. © MRAC. Photo: J.-M. Vandyck. FIG. 17 (right): “Knife-spoon.”Ababua cultural zone. Iron. L: 42 cm. Collected by A. Daenen (1891–1892). MRAC, EO.0.0.34343 (registered in 1932). © MRAC. Photo: J.-M. Vandyck. such as the Zande. The particular variant of this weapon among the Bagbwe, Ababua, Makere, Lokele, and Zande has a blade in which one or several longitudinal slits are placed close to the handle (fig. 14).3 It is altogether conceivable that this blade form could have had an influence on the production of other utensils such as razors (fig. 15) and spoons. Where the latter are concerned, an influence of this sort would not be unique in Central Africa. Some Fang spoons, for instance, have a handle that echoes the handle of the classic Fang sword (fig. 16). Closer to our region, there is another particularly interesting example. This is a “Boaish” piece collected by A. Daenen that looks like a sword with the concave part of a spoon for a handle (fig. 17). It is tempting to think that the blacksmith who created this object clearly illustrated, albeit for unknown reasons, the essence of the iconographic “slip” that occurred between the weapon and the spoon. While the general shape of our ivory spoons (figs. 1–6) could inspire multiple hypotheses with regard to sculptural influences, the same may be true of the designs engraved on them, which also are worthy of study. Indeed, when one examines the flat end piece of the spoon in figure 1, a very un-Congolese design presents itself engraved into it—that of a six-pointed star. Although atypical, this design is not entirely unfamiliar, since ealier research in the MRAC collection revealed several other northeastern Congolese objects that also displayed this foreign motif. It was engraved onto the bottom of a container made from a hippopotamus tooth and identified as a tobacco mortar (fig. 18). This object was collected in 1894 among the Nzakara, who lived along the Bomu River. A few swords of the type noted above and in the museum’s old collection, probably collected before 1897, also have this design stamped on them (fig. 19).
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