Producer unknown to us
Knife
Asia, Turkmenistan, Aschgabat
20th Century
Iron, forged; ivory, carved
Wolfgang König (former museum director) acquired the knife in Aschgabat, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1959
Purchased by the museum from König in 1959
WAs 1940 a, b
This knife comes with a steel blade and a bivalve handle made of carved ivory.
Wolfgang König (1925–1979) served as department head for Central Asia since 1958, and as director of the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig 1970–1979. He was part of a research focus group on pastoral nomadism in the deserts between West Africa and Central Asia. One of his many research trips led to Central Asia and Mongolia in 1959, where he acquired a number of Turkmen objects.
Frank Usbeck