Loading, please wait...
Details
LOT 2357
African Wooden Comb Fertility Figure
ASANTE TRIBE, 20TH CENTURY A.D.
16 3/8 in. (483 grams, 41.7 cm).
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. [No Reserve]
Provenance
From Southern Ghana, West Africa.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
Footnotes
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.
CONDITIONVETTING:
TimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
TimeLine is a leading auction house specialising in antiquities, ancient art, collectables, natural history, coins, medals, and books. Our auctions offer museums, collectors, historians, and enthusiasts the opportunity to acquire unique and historically significant pieces.
RELATED LOTS
-
African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask
Salampasu Tribe, early to mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £286
Piriform and hollow to the reverse, with white-painted lower face, long nose, a square red-painted mouth with carved teeth; mounted on a custom-made stand. 855 grams total, 39 cm including stand
From the frontier between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, Central Africa. From a private London, UK, ethnographic collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
Salampasu masks were integral part of the warriors’ society whose primary task was to protect this small enclave against invasions by outside kingdoms. -
African Wooden Cermonial Face Mask
We Tribe, early-mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Carved with tubular eyes, a wide mouth with metal plate teeth, a broad nose and raffia hair around the whole mask. 1.15 kg, face long: 28.5 cm
From Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, West Africa. From an old Newbury, UK, ethnographic collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
Masks are owned by families and used by individual lineage members in contexts of social control, boy’s circumcision camps, and entertainment. Most We masks were created to frighten with the gaping jaws and tubular eyes. Modern ethnology puts the Wobe and Guere together under the name We, despite the fact that the people themselves use the old names. -
African Wooden Ceremonial Tribal Stool
Yoruba Tribe, early-mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £91
A carved tribal stool, an oval seat decorated with beads supported by two female figures displaying scarification, on a plano-convex base. 2.55 kg, 41 cm high
From Republic of Benin, West Africa. From the collection of the late Professor R M Hicks, OBE. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.