Description: A mottled grey-brown flint axe with straight sides and straight cutting edge, the posterior end rounded. The flint with the attractive dark red irregular banding typically seen in axes from this culture. The axe in excellent condition and a museum quality example, from the Tenere Desert, Agadez (formerly spelled Agadès), Niger.
Sizc: 140 mm/5.5 ins. in length
Culture: Tenere Culture, North Africa
Date: 5th to mid-3rd Millennium B.C.
Provenance: Ex F.S. Clark Collection, Woking, Surrey (and with his collectors mark).
Background: Mr Fred Clark (1923-2016) ran the Old Curiosity Shoppe, The Quadrant, Onslow Street, Guildford, Surrey, in the 1970’s-1980’s selling a range of collectables. A passionate collector and field-walker, he built up a fine collection of antiquities, notable for British prehistoric items, a significant number of which he obtained through trade with Dr. H.A. Fawcett. Like Fawcett, he was meticulous in documenting his collection, even the most humble tools were catalogued and fully labelled with locality, accession number and his characteristic monogram.
