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LOT 2367
African Wooden Ritual Cup
SENUFO TRIBE, 20TH CENTURY A.D.
7 1/4 in. (940 grams, 18.5 cm wide).
Comprising a cotton-reel-shaped body with stylised figural handles carved in the round, one male and one female, each facing the other with chin resting on the rim of the cup, arms embracing the bowl, legs spread around the foot, frieze of interlocking combed triangles around the stem. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
Acquired Nairobi, Kenya, 1997.
Property of a Manchester, UK, collector.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
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AUCTIONS:
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Ashanti Bronze Gold Figural Weight Collection
Akan Tribe, 19th-20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £13
Comprising three kilted figures, each carrying a basket, in various poses. 105 grams total, 53-56 mm
From an old Oxford, UK, collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman. -
African Wooden Ancestor Figure
Fang Tribe, 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
A hand-carved standing female figure with hands placed in front of the figure and wearing arm rings. 930 grams, 48 cm
From Equatorial Guinea, West Coast of Central Africa. From an old Bristol, UK, ethnographical collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The people that are called “Fang” in the geographic or ethnographic literature number 800,000 and constitute a vast mosaic of village communities, established in a large zone of Atlantic equatorial Africa comprising Cameroon, continental Equatorial Guinea and nearly the whole north of Gabon, on the right bank of the Ogowe River. The Fang practice a cult devoted to ancestor lineages, the bieri, whose aim is to both protect themselves from the deceased and to recruit their aid in matters of daily life. Bieri are reliquary figures placed by the Fang upon their bark boxes to personify the tribal soul, containing the skulls and skeletons of prominent deceased persons. The bieri also served for therapeutic rituals and, above all, for initiations of young males during the great so festival. The rites included consumption of a plant with stimulant properties, which induced a trance lasting for several hours, and the “resuscitation of the ancestors,” in which figures detached from the reliquaries were moved somewhat playfully from behind a raffia screen as puppets. -
African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask
Fang Tribe, early-mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
A large carved mask with a white heart-shaped face and a decoration to the forehead. 764 grams, 43 cm
From Cameroon, Central Africa. From the collection of the late Professor R M Hicks, OBE. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The Fang used masks in their secret societies. Fang masks, such as those worn by itinerant troubadours and for hunting and punishing sorcerers, are painted white with facial features outlined in black. Typical are large, elongated masks and featuring a face that was usually heart-shaped with a long, fine nose. Apparently, it has been linked with the dead and ancestors, since white is their color. The ngontang dance society also used white masks, sometimes in the form of a four-sided helmet-mask with bulging forehead and eyebrows in heart-shaped arcs.
