Zulu weapons could fetch R2m at UK auction today
Shield used at Isandlwana on sale
SALE of Zulu weapons and artefacts is expected to raise nearly R2m at an auction in the UK today.
The collection includes a tribal shield used in the Battle of Isandlwana when British colonial troops were routed and a spear used in the Battle of Ulundi which led to the defeat of the Zulu kingdom and exile of King Cetshwayo.
Today’s sale in Lewes, East Sussex, comes on the 50th anniversary to the day of the release of the film Zulu, which famously documented the defence of Rorke’s Drift.
Coincidentally, the auctioneer at Wallis & Wallis who will conduct the sale, Roy Butler, is film star Michael Caine’s cousin whose career was launched by the 1964 movie.
The collection contains more than 150 items including staffs, knobkerries, spears, necklaces, letters, axes, belts, books, powder horns, snuff containers and books.
But it is the spear and necklaces that stand out, said historian Ian Knight who catalogued the sale and has written about the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. He said they had received inter-
Aest from South Africa, Canada and the US as well as the UK with Wallis & Wallis installing more phones than usual to cope with potential buyers. He said: “We’ve had a lot of interest from South Africa with one lady supposedly flying in for the sale. I’ve also been in contact with a Zulu man who lives in Soweto who’s interested in some of the things for sale. It would be nice to think some of the items might find their way back to South Africa.”
That might include the shield made from dried cow skin which dates back to 1879. Knight said the large shield would have been used by a young Zulu warrior at the time and in all likelihood wielded by the fighter at Isandlwana where 1 300 British troops were killed by Zulu impi.
The collection was amassed by former Royal Marine commando David Smith. He died in 2009 and the items are being sold by his partner, Roberta Welham.
As well as weapons, the collection also has decorative necklaces made from either lions’ or jackals’ teeth.
Knight said: “They are beautiful necklaces and would probably have been worn by some- one of importance, but there are no historical explanations with them so we don’t know.”
Among the more poignant lots is a letter home from a Captain Percival Armitage detailing the clear-up of the Isandl- wana battlefield three months afterwards. The 36-page letter makes for grim reading.
Knight said: “The British didn’t go back for three months because Lord Chelmsford was worried about Zulus. By the time they did, the bodies were decomposing; the skin had gone hard and leathery in the hot sun.
“Captain Armitage says while trying to get identification from a soldier, he looks into his boots and his foot comes off in his hand.”
The letter could go for about R90 000.
Knight said the timing of the sale and the Zulu film release was accidental but important. He said: “Most peo- ple know about the Zulu war because of that film. It doesn’t glorify war but gives a perspective from the soldiers’ view rather than just the officers, which makes it more sympathetic to the viewer.”