African Bronze Figure on Horseback

A wooden mask with traces of white facial pigment and a raffia collar. 851 grams, 36.5 cm



From Gabon, West Africa. From an old Norwich, UK, collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.

Punu masks represent idealised female ancestors' faces. The white colour of the mask is genderless and a symbol for peace, deities, spirits of the dead, and the afterlife. It is the predominating colour in funeral celebrations and memorials. The masks were worn during funerals. They appeared also in the magical rites whose function was to unmask sorcerers. The masks have realistic, mostly white but sometimes black faces with protruding pursed lips, globular protruding eyes incised with a curve, high-domed foreheads, and characteristic rigid high coiffures reflecting the Punu women's hair styles. The masks often have an oriental expression, but no such influence has been established. Many Punu masks can be recognized by raised diamond-shape scarification marks on the foreheads and temples.

Carved in the round with large discoid panel for the head with high-relief facial features; small body with arms spread, resting on a rectangular comb with six tines. 483 grams, 41.7 cm



From Southern Ghana, West Africa. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.

Fertility and children are the most frequent themes in the wooden sculptures of the Asante. The most numerous works are akua’ba fertility figures. The are dolls with disk-shaped heads embodying their concept of beauty and carried by women who want to become pregnant and to deliver a beautiful child.

Carved and decorated with lengths of fiber representing hair, small nose, carved teeth and scarification marks. 525 grams, 28.5 cm



From Western Ivory Coast and into Liberia, West Africa. From the private collection of the late Brian Morley; acquired in the 1950s. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.