About a copper axe like this, an anonymous author wrote in an 1896 magazine that it was not an instrument of war or work, but of insignia that the local leaders put in the hands of their emissaries and thus testified to the sometimes very extensive powers, data to the same.
This splendid example of axe Kilonda completely covered in red copper, with the exception of a small part in iron that in all probability served as a "flag" ie to represent a precise owner or king, is characterized by different geometric decorations, by a hole and a stylized face with masterful synthesis and expressiveness, forged and engraved in copper on both sides of the blade.
An almost identical face is also represented on the two-limbed blade of the Kilonda ex coll. Josef Mueller, published on p. 247 of the book De fer et de fierté, Armes Blanches d'Afrique noir du musée Babier-Mueller, written by Jan Elsen for 5 Continents Editions, 2003.