Details

LOT 2388

West African Squatting Stone Figure Pair

KISSI TRIBE, EARLY 20TH CENTURY A.D.

7 7/8 - 9 1/4 in. (2.55 kg total, 20-23.5 cm).

Carved stone statues (twins) from Sierra Leone; two steatite anthropomorphic carvings, one male and one female, both with hands wrapped around the knees. [2, No Reserve]

Provenance

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

Literature

Cf. Tagliaferri, Aldo, Hammacher, Arno, Die steinernen Ahnen, Graz 1974.

Footnotes

The Kissi as early as the 15th century, revered soapstone (steatite) anthropomorphic carvings, which are found in fields and rivers in the area centered around Sewa and Mano rivers. The Kissi people call them Pomdo (Pombo), which mean "the deceased". Some of their carvings are extremely old. These statues were the abodes of the spirits of their ancestors. In order to find out which ancestor a statue represented; a man’s dreams were analyzed with the help of the diviner. At festivities the statue was wrapped in cotton upon which sacrificial blood had been poured. The owner (the guardian of the statue) placed it on the family altar; hence it was thought to be the family’s protector against sickness. It was also consulted before a new undertaking was planned. The statues were believed to have supernatural power and were used in rice cultivation. Remarkably, the descendants of the Kissi people still keep up the tradition of stone carving.