World Art

A stylized head, probably a fragment (if authentic) of a statuette of a harp player, Cycladic or Cycladic style. Greece, Cyclades ? Stone, ochre patina H. 5 cm Provenance : - Miguel Covarrubias Collection. - Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A superb and ancient guardian figure of a mbumba bwiti reliquary with an imposing presence, wearing a hairstyle of large braided plaits called mitooki and tinted with the blue so characteristic of this corpus of mbumba sculptures, obtained with the Guimet washing blue imported in the 19th century, named after its inventor in 1828 Jean-Baptiste Guimet. This ancient mbumba bwiti reliquary keeper, who has lost his office here, was planted in a basket of basketry where one or more skulls were placed, embodying the genius of the founding ancestor of the lineage. During bwiti ceremonies, the initiate, diviner or sorcerer, might take the mbumba out of its bone basket and hold, wave or question it, using it as a ceremonial scepter and an object of intercession with the world of the ancestors. Its owner was usually buried after his death with his mbumba. For other comparable mbumba bwiti reliquary figures, see: Lumbu, a Sacred Art, Gourcuff-Gradenigo ed. and Bernard Dulon Gallery, 2016, pp. 130-161. Lumbu, Gabon Wood, glass, pigments, resin remnant, very nice patina of use. H. 57,5 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.

A very beautiful and ancient miniature bewitchment and control stake statuette with two rodent skulls tied on either side of the scarified figure in the face, and a stake still stuck in the throat to cause aphasia. Fon, Benin Wood, bone, string, feathers, very beautiful and old patina of use. H. 10 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection. Exhibition and publication : Voodoo Exhibition, Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, 2011, reproduced p. 163 and 186.

A group of two very old male voodoo stakes statuettes of bewitchment and control sculpted in feet, both bound with fabric additions and wooden plates, but with free arms, one of which has a shaved hair cut on one side and the other with important cleats in the chest to control the breath, thus life, or even provoke death, and another cleat in the skull to control the strength and will. Nago and Fon, Benin Wood, rope, cloth, clay, very beautiful and old patina. H. 34 and 33 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection. Exhibition : Voodoo Exhibition, Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, 2011, exhibited but not reproduced in the catalog.

A lot gathering two rare and very old charms of which a hunter's taàri charm as shown by the superb patinas and the piercing which allowed the attachment. See Lobi, visions of Africa, Éd. 5 Continents, 2007. Lobi, Burkina Faso Wood, visible missing parts, old erosions, very beautiful patina of use. H. 11.8 and 8.1 cm Provenance: Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A rare composite sculpture made up of a kneeling Edan-type piquet statuette, richly honored with various materials constituting a thick and important "load" as well as cowrie shell necklaces of ancient pearls covering it almost entirely and wearing around the neck a coiled necklace of snake vertebrae, the whole is linked by a chain that attaches it at the other end to a shell (cypraea). Yoruba, Nigeria Brass, various sacrificial materials, cotton, cowrie shells, glass beads, bone, shell, beautiful patina of use. H. 25 cm approximately for the statuette. Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection.

A very beautiful and ancient diminutive mask, personal altar and mark of belonging to an initiatory society (probably the Poro), having kept its finery including its woven cotton headdress decorated with cowries, and its tin hoops applied around the eyes accentuating its look. For another diminutive mask that has kept all its finery, see : Die Kunst der Dan, Museum Rietberg Zürich, 1976, p. 138 n° 105. Dan, Ivory Coast Wood, cotton, iron, cowries, superb patina of use and sacrifice H. 14,5 cm Provenance : - Private collection Christian Debenest - Private collection, transmitted by descent.

Set of six Iznik faience dishes, decorated with tulips and carnations Diameter: 26 to 28 cm (broken and glued, restoration) Lot to be taken in Pantin, on June 1, 2023 - by appointment -

A large Biga fertility doll, most likely in style. This sculpture, which Jacques Kerchache had made a great deal of and in which he sincerely believed in 1986 when he organized the exhibition in homage to Malraux at the Villa Médicis, no longer convinced him on the eve of printing the reference work known as "Le Mazenod", and he confided to his wife Anne "that he had probably made a mistake with this work", but the printing of what would become a bible for all lovers of African art had already begun. No one is perfect, and this incredible oversized Biga doll will remain a witness to his insatiable appetite and curiosity as well as a lesson in humility, and in spite of everything a very beautiful sculpture, a great curiosity! Mossi, Burkina Faso Wood, glossy black patina. H. 73 cm Provenance : Collection Anne and Jacques Kerchache, acquired from Jean Claude Andrault. Exhibition and publications : - Scultura Africana, Ommagio a André Malraux at the Villa Medici, May-June 1986, exhibited, reproduced and commented in the catalog p. 106-115. - L'Art africain, Éd. Citadelles et Mazenod, 1988, p. 85, fig. 38.

A superb and very old mask, with a slightly pinched mouth and a large powerful forehead, like its cheekbones, that plunges and ends with large arches that protrude and overhang its slit eyes. This mask is exceptional both for its plastic qualities, its great age, its presence, and for the rarity of its typology. It is covered with an important patina of soot, known as smoke, which testifies to its age and to the fumigation methods that made it possible to preserve important objects in situ from woodborers. It is still marked by an ancient reddish pigment around the eyes. It is not surprising in view of all its qualities that this beautiful mask passed through the hands and expert eye of René Rasmussen, who kept it in his private collection, and who published it in 1951 with other works from his collection in a small publication (Art Nègre) presented by him and which has since become almost mythical. For a mask of the same rare typology, but of much lesser quality and age, see : Masken der Wè und Dan Elfenbeinküste - Die Sammlung des Schweizer Malers Charles Hug Paris 1928- 31, Museum Rietberg Zürich, 1997, p. 77, fig. 47. Dan, Ivory Coast Wood, remnant of an old ochre pigment around the eyes, superb and old patina from smoke and use. H. Height : 25 cm Provenance : - Private collection of René Rasmussen, Paris. - Sotheby's sale, London, July 3, 1989, lot 86. - Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris, 1992. Publication : Art Nègre, presented by René Rasmussen, Éd. Le Soleil Noir 1951, reproduced fig. 24.

An ancient figure of a polychrome mbumba bwiti reliquary keeper, having kept her charge and her mirror, her hairstyle in braided braids, and tinted with Guimet blue, particularly rich and successful because it combines an axial braid and braided braids, and seems to merge the two ancient traditional hairstyles, mitooki and kodia mentioned above. For other comparable mbumba bwiti reliquary figures, see : Lumbu, a Sacred Art, Gourcuff-Gradenigo ed. and Bernard Dulon Gallery, 2016, pp. 130-161. Lumbu, Gabon Wood, glass, pigments, resin, beautiful and old patina of use. H. 59 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.

An imposing and old pendant whistle decorated with a beautiful head topped with two carved pins that served as a handle to the whistle. Tchokwe, Angola Wood, relic of ochre pigment, beautiful patina of use. H. 12 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection. Exhibition and publication : Pierre Bergé & Associés sale of June 13, 2010, lot 290.

A lot gathering two double bocio statuettes, one of which is a rare double-headed piquet statuette sculpted from the front, recalling one of the most famous voodoo sculptures of the Kerchache collection in its structure with two heads from the front and having neither a link nor a control cleat, it is a protective statuette, as well as for the other one concerning a couple; it is not a question of control or bewitchment statuettes here. See (among other publications) for the statuette cited in reference: Vaudou, Éd. Fondation Cartier, 2011, p. 51 and 53. Fon, Benin Wood, rope, wood plate, cowrie shells, feathers, sacrificial patina, very beautiful patina of use. H. 15 cm and 24.5 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection. Exhibition and publication : - Sotheby's New York sale, May 8, 1989, lot 25 (in lot for the 15 cm one) - Exhibition Vaudou, Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, 2011, works exhibited but not reproduced in the catalog.

*An ancient and beautiful akwaba doll with a pretty pout, a scarified face and an engraved head at the back, her breasts are sculpted in volume and her sex is engraved. Ashanti, Ghana Wood, beads, visible lack at the base (old breakage), beautiful patina of use. H. 31.5 cm Provenance : Nadine Vinot-Postry Collection, Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold in temporary importation.

An ancient mask with round rimmed eyes, the edges of which bear witness to an ancient thicker patina or an ancient resin that was used to attach additional rimming around the eyes, usually in metal. The eyebrows in relief, the high rounded forehead and the mouth are beautifully sculpted. He wears a braided cotton beard. The patina of this ancient mask, originally thicker (probably also a sacrificial patina on the upper forehead) and of which there are obvious traces around the mouth of the eyes and all around, has been visibly cleaned to reveal the old layer of the mask's original reddish vegetable pigment. Dan, Ivory Coast Wood, iron, woven cotton beard, pigment, old indigenous restoration visible in iron staples, beautiful patina of use. H. 23.5 cm (without the beard). Provenance: Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A very old female statuette of a rare type, her hands placed on either side of her sex, her arms applied along her body and forming a diamond shape, her small enigmatic head resting on her long neck is turned towards her left, clearly indicating her movement, her legs spread and camped with vigor. The whole sculpture is covered with a superb material characteristic of objects often attributed essentially to the Tellem (meaning in the Dogon language "those who were here before us") and which obviously also testifies to its very great antiquity. Dogon (or Tellem), Mali Wood, missing parts visible at the bottom (old breaks), old chip visible at the occiput, superb old patina of use. H. 40,3 cm Provenance : - Charles Ratton, Paris. - Loudmer sale, Paris, June 22, 1984, lot 66. - Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A thangka representing Vajrayogini Tibet, around 1900. Fabric, pigments, as is, framed under glass. 76,5 x 54,5 cm Provenance : Vinot-Postry Collection, Cuernavaca.

*An ancient scarified mask adorned with a carved headdress, with its ancient hood and headdress of braided plant fibers. Lwéna or Songo, Angola Wood, rattan, vegetable fibers and ochre pigments, small visible accidents, old ochre patina from use. H. 20 cm without the headdress Provenance : - Personal collection of Charles-Émile Thiébaud, collected between 1932 and 1933 during the second Swiss mission to Angola, see lot 234. - Swiss private collection. *This lot is sold as a temporary import.

*A very ancient and rare anthropomorphic stone statue probably representing a deified ancestor, and constituting a major rediscovery for the arts of Vanuatu, but also more generally for Melanesian arts.Pierre Langlois wrote in March 1962 in a very beautiful text entitled The Art of the New Hebrides: "If we know Oceanic arts well enough, the art of the New Hebrides is however an exception. We have very little information about it, and no serious monograph has yet been devoted to it. Since that time, it has been done, and many travelers, researchers, anthropologists, and archaeologists have stayed in Vanuatu, notably for its art, which Pierre Langlois had also contributed to make known. Today we know thanks to archaeology that the settlement of Melanesia took place about 40,000 years ago, and 4000 years before our era the "Melanesians already had a deep knowledge of their marine and land territory", mastering navigation and moving from island to island. Concerning the ancient statuary of the Vanuatu, we know of course its large drums and its sculptures of fern ranks, as well as its masks and its famous funerary mannequins, but also and above all some rare monumental anthropomorphic sculptures: major works in the museums of Basel and the Pavillon des Cessions in the Louvre, referring to the cults of divinized ancestors. We also know of an ancient tradition of stone sculptures called "magic stones", also called "pig stones", but of which little is known. We also know of an ancient tradition of anthropomorphic coral sculptures of which only five specimens survived the ravages of Christianization and missionaries, saved by Captain Wolsh in 1884 and deposited in the Sydney Museum. The arrival of Westerners and missionaries was devastating: between 1830 and 1920 the local population is said to have decreased by 50%, and up to 90% depending on the region. Representations of deities, or deified founding ancestors, were "removed from sacred places, such as the 'marae', the 'temple' (nakamal) and other hidden shelters, and then buried or burned in wells, or thrown into the high seas. The work that we are rediscovering today is one of those works of art that comes from the past thanks to a chance discovery made between 1930 and 1940 on the island of Santo by a copra farmer who owned 1,200 hectares of land there. While surveying his land, he "found it in a hole". There is another work, also older than the other known stone sculptures from Vanuatu, which also comes from the island of Santo: it is a stone dish donated by R. Chardonnet to the Musée de l'Homme in 1957 (inv.MH57.2.9). But the best evidence from a stylistic or artistic point of view, in order to understand the importance of this rediscovery for Melanesian heritage, is probably to put this sculpture simply in relation to the famous drawing by the anthropologist Nicholai Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888), which constitutes one of the oldest testimonies of Vanuatu statuary. And even if it is a wooden statue drawn here, the whole attitude, the slightly concave face, the characteristic round headdress, the arms closed to the body, the triangular loincloth (or sex), everything matches. In the same way, many of the same specificities are evident if we compare it with the masterpiece of the Pavillon des Cessions coming from the island of Malo and collected in 1935 during the expedition of the Korrigane. Finally, we note an important characteristic: our work is carved in its lower part in the shape of an axe, perhaps referring to the tradition of pig sacrifices or human sacrifices, or simply to stick it in the ground, but the tradition known throughout other cultures of sculptures derived from an axe shape only confirms its archaism. See Vanuatu Oceania, Arts des îles de cendre et de corail, Éd. RMN & Orstom, 1996, fig. 15, p. 17 for the Miklouho-Maclay drawing, p. 30, figs. 38 and 39 for two examples of coral sculptures collected by Wolsh, and p. 342; fig. 343 for the Santo dish donated to the Museum of Man by Chardonnet. For the sculpture from the island of Malo, see: Sculptures, Afrique Asie Océanie Amériques, Éd. RMN, 2000, pp. 274-278. Santo Island, Vanuatu, (former New Hebrides) Stone, small old minor accidents, mark on the surface in the lower part due to numerous rubbings in an old base (presented with and carved by the former owner M. Auguste Harbulot himself), very beautiful old wear and erosions, the surface of the stone testifies of a long burial. H. 57 cm Provenance : Auguste Harbulot (born in Nouméa on May 18, 1902 and died on September 12, 1946 in Port-Or

An ancient and very beautiful anthropomorphic pendant axe, the arms and hands folded over the body by a pattern of very pure horizontal engravings as well as for the mouth and of a magnificent modernity, polished on the face and testifying at the back to the ancient technique of cutting the stone with rope and abrasives. Guanacaste - Nicoya culture, 300 to 700 AD, Costa Rica or Panama Green stone, encrusted traces of roots from a long burial, minor accidents, very beautiful and old patina. H. 16,2 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection.

*An ancient hooked spirit figure, a "pre-contact" sculpture, with beautiful and ancient polychromy. This sculpture, collected by Georges Kennedy, is part of a corpus of objects of worship given to the spirit of an ancestor. This archaic style of hooked spirit figure, and in particular inverted or opposite hooks like this one, would have been abandoned around 1900 and replaced according to Anthony Forge by more anthropomorphic representations coming from influences further west. See for the record of another inverted hook sculpture in the Jolika Collection: New Guinea Art Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection, 5 Continents, 2005, p. 327, fig. 292, and vol. 2, p. 130. Abelam people, Maprik Mountains, Roma (and so-called Roma-style) region, Eastern Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea Wood, old pigments, restorations of a hook and a piece of the headdress (broken and glued), original pieces, visible lack of a hook (old breakage), old oxidation, very nice and old patina. H. Height : 153 cm Provenance : - Dr. George Clayton Kennedy Collection (1919- 1980), collected by him in Abelam country between 1962 and 1964. - Christie's sale, Los Angeles, 1981, lot 78. - Milton Arno Leof Collection. - Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold as a temporary import.

A sculpture of Apsara Burma, 18-19th century Wood, erosion, visible missing parts, old oxidation H : 50,5 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A polychrome Bwiti ceremonial mask with characteristic large eyebrow arches and painted white. "Often the masks perform in groups, gesticulating and waving flaming herbal torches. Tsogho, Gabon Wood, polychromy (paintings), nails, rope and fabric, minor accidents, patina of use. H. 32 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.

An ancient movenga side post of an Ebandza ceremonial hut, a bwiti temple, carved with a very expressive polychrome female figure, surmounted by a symbol that could seem unequivocal and carved in relief. At the entrance of the Ebandza are placed on either side two columns representing "the male and female principles of humanity; in the temple-human body they are the "arms", but also the moon Ngonde and the sun Kombi For another female column carved with a figure and in relief like this one, see : Les Chefs-d'œuvre de l'art gabonais au Musée des Arts et Traditions de Libreville, Éd. Rotary Club de Libreville et Louis Perrois, 1986, p. 73. Tsogho, Gabon Wood, old mineral pigments, old wear and cracks, traces of lichen on the back, truncated, old patina. H. 92 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection. Exhibition and publication : - Binoche, Renaud, Giquello sale, March 1, 2013, lot 137. - Tsogho, les Icônes du Bwiti, Éd. Gourcuff-Gradenigo and Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2016, p. 51, n° 29.

A thangka representing Vajrayogini. Tibet, 19th century Fabric, pigments, as is 120 x 70 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

EGYPT Lot of two busts of oushebtis of which one carries the farming instruments painted in black, and the other one the farming instruments in relief and the beard postiche Blue earthenware Third Intermediate and Late Period, c. 1069-332 BC H. 5 cm DL missing

An ancient statuette of the Bwami society called kalibangoma or katimbitimbi, sculpted in bust form and ending in a point, reserved for members (male or female) of high ranks of the Bwami society according to Daniel P. Biebuyck, decorated with multiple engraved dots, and with the strong expressiveness of the face characteristic of a very ancient style. See for other Lega statuettes of the same type p. 96 and 97 in: Art of The Lega-UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History L.A.- Ed. Fowler Museum UCLA University of California 2001. Lega, Democratic Republic of Congo Ivory, relics of ochre pigments on the face, wear, very nice and old patina. H. 10,2 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A lowre musical percussion hammer decorated with a bo nun amuin horn mask and rich finely chiseled decorations. Baule, Ivory Coast Wood, wear and accidents, very nice patina of use. H. 22 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

*A statuette of a rare type with a scarified face, the treatment of the arches and cheeks unequivocally recalls the Kakungu initiation mask of circumcision, and the disproportionate sex of the character, marked with incisions, forms a handle going up to the chest between the folded arms of the character, the sculpture of the body and in particular of the legs is very well rhythmic in an angular manner and of a beautiful ancient style. Suku, Democratic Republic of Congo Wood, pigments, beautiful and old patina of use. H. 37 cm Provenance : Nadine Vinot-Postry Collection, Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold in temporary importation.

AFRICA Lot including 5 assegais and 3 harpoons in wood and metal. Length: 167 cm

A lot gathering fourteen omakipa ornaments. These carved and engraved belt pendants, attached to leather laces, offered by men to their fiancées, testified to the quantity of livestock they owned, and the engravings that adorn them are not simply decorative but have a very specific meaning. For similar omakipa ornaments, see : Afrique, l'art des formes, Marc Ginzberg collection, Éd. Skira, 2000, p. 257. Cuanhama, Namibia Ivory, mineral pigment, wear and very beautiful patina. H. between 5 and 7,5 cm Provenance: Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection.

An ancient Batéba statuette, the legs spread out with the body forming an inverted Y reminiscent of the sculptures of Dagara ancestors. The arms, brought back in a compact volume, form wings and seem to represent a bird man. This rare Birifor sculpture is similar to Dagara art in the northeast of Lobi country, or in Dagara country itself between the towns of Dissin in Burkina and Lawra in Ghana. One can see on the front of the chest an extremely patinated area as if the object had been used as a scrubber. Lobi or Dagara, Burkina Faso or Ghana H. 42 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

An ancient post decorated with a beautiful female figure with prominent breasts carved in high relief, architectural element and support of the roof of the Togu Na, a place of palaver and meetings reserved for the initiated men, which was covered with a spectacular structure of branches creating shade and coolness. Dogon (or Bambara), Mali Wood, very beautiful patina of use. H : 180 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A pwo dance mask embodying the idealized beauty of the woman, still showing dental mutilations and scarifications, of a beautiful style it is carved in the appropriate wood, its headdress and net do not seem very old or like the inside of the mask may have suffered from the weather; this being it is perfectly authentic. Tchokwe, Angola Wood, vegetable fibers, pigments, visible wear and small accidents, patina of use. H. 18,5 cm Provenance : - Christine Valluet, Paris. - Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A beautiful smiling head of a wrinkled man, fragment of an ancient statuette. Culture known as Tumaco-La Tolita, approximately 300 BC to 300 AD, Ecuador or Colombia Terracotta, traces of an ancient slip. H. 11 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection. Exhibition : Binoche, Renaud et Giquello sale of June 14, 2010, lot n° 7.

A lovely miniature pendant, former necklace element, in the shape of a frog. Veraguas, Cocle or Chiriqui cultures, about 900 to 1500 AD, Costa Rica or Panama Tumbaga, old and beautiful patina of use. H. 2,5 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A charming little mangam crest mask, evoking the buffalo and used for the initiation of young men. Mama, Nigeria Wood, ochre pigment, cracks and oxidation of age, patina of use. H. 32 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

An important polychrome bwiti initiation mask, with large arches, a rounded forehead, and twelve pyrographed pastilles on each cheek. Its size and volume are reminiscent of the large Fang dance mask called bikereu. For a Fang bikereu mask, see : Art ancestral du Gabon, Éd. Nathan and Musée Barbier-Mueller, 1985, p. 172 and 173. Photo taken in the village on the day of its acquisition by Jacques Viault. Benjabi, Gabon Wood, polychromy, old oxidation, patina of use. H. 36 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.

Fragmentary representation of a female figure with arms crossed in a gesture of respect and humility, wearing a crown and a veil, perhaps receiving the sacrament. The kings made of the artistic patronage a tool in the service of the Christian message but also of propaganda of their own politics. "In the fifteenth century, King Zärä Yaeqob (1434-1468), son of King Dawit, gave pictorial production a real formal framework, to serve religious worship as well as to reinforce royal ideology, giving rise to a new impetus in artistic creation," and gradually giving rise in the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia to a real cult of the image. The Ethiopians use only one term: Seel, meaning "image", to designate wall paintings, manuscript illuminations, portable panels or drawings. Just as the Greek word for icon, eikôn, has not found its translation in Ethiopian. See: Peintures sacrées d'Éthiopie - Collections de la Mission Dakar-Djibouti, Éd. Sépia, 2005. Ethiopia, 18th century Painting on canvas, re-mounted on canvas and mounted on stretcher, old pigments, visible lacks. H. 60 cm - L. 50 cm Provenance : Christiane and Antonin Besse collection since the 1950s, and passed on by descent.

A beautiful old man's chair. Dan, Ivory Coast Wood, iron, very nice patina of use. H. 31 cm L. : 33 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A tun babi which was used to measure the correct order of the cable of the trebuchet of a wild pig or deer trap, surmounted by a beautiful anthropomorphic sculpture which "sang" to attract the animal, here resting on a base with engraved decorations. For a model very close to the base with engraved decorations in the Barbier-Mueller collections, see : Arts des Mers du Sud, Éd. Adam Biro, 1998, reproduced on p. 66. Iban Dayak, Borneo, Sarawak, Malaysia and Indonesia Hard wood, very nice patina. H. 54,5 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

A batch of two ancient sculptures, visible architectural elements supporting the roof, representing two animals of Hindu mythology: a Yali also called Vyala and an equine. Nepal, 18th century or earlier H. 57 and 32 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

EGYPT Small stylized oushebti Green earthenware Late period, c.664-332 B.C. H. 7 cm DL

An ancient and very beautiful divination plate engraved on both sides, which was used with a magic book (pustaha). The Batak culture is the only tribal society in all of Southeast Asia to have a script, derived from Sanskrit. See : Primitive Arts of Southeast Asia, Alain and Françoise Chaffin, p. 58. Batak, Sumatra Water buffalo rib bone, superb patina of use. H. 18 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection.

A rare triptych with flaps (Seel), a portable painting with vignettes of a judgment scene and scenes of multiple torments. Used for private devotion, this type of polyptych was donated to religious institutions by "private individuals, ecclesiastics or nobles, who had them made in the hope of eternal salvation". On polyptychs in Ethiopian sacred painting, see: Peintures sacrées d'Éthiopie - Collections de la Mission Dakar-Djibouti, Éd. Sépia, 2005, p. 38 to 62. Ethiopia, 19th or early 20th century Wood, pigments, wear, very nice patina. H. 44 x 58 cm Provenance : Anne and Jacques Kerchache Collection.

A lot gathering two very beautiful miniature sculptures, old elements of necklace, of which a round head in fossiliferous limestone inlaid with jade in the eyes and the mouth, and a head with the strongly deformed skull characteristic of the Olmec nobility, and coming from an old truncated and polished statuette. Probably Maya culture, 200 B.C. to 400 A.D., and Olmec culture, 900 to 400 B.C., State of Veracruz, Mexico Fossiliferous limestone and polished jades, very beautiful and old patina of use. H. 1.7 and 2.6 cm Provenance: Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

*A lot gathering two old male and female statuettes of beautiful presence. Lobi and Sénoufo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso Wood, oxidations of age, small visible lacks, beautiful and old patinas of use. H. 16 and 18 cm Provenance : Nadine Vinot-Postry Collection, Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold in temporary importation.

An old tobacco mortar with a handle and having kept its lid in calabash. Tchokwe, Angola Wood, leather, calabash, two old collection numbers: 948 inscribed in pen on a label and 1208 / DH.52, superb patina of use. H. 6,2 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.

*A beautiful stylized doll with a characteristic crested hairstyle. For other specimens see : Ritual oder Spiel, Puppen aus Afrika und Ägypten, Staatliche Museen Berlin, 2004, p. 44. Zaramo, Tanzania Wood, beads, beautiful patina of use. H. 15 cm Provenance : Nadine Vinot-Postry Collection, Cuernavaca. *This lot is sold in temporary importation.

A lot gathering three very beautiful and old mortised dulong cups, one of them inlaid with bone, and another one with a border decoration cut and mortised with a buffalo bone. For other beautiful dulong cups, see : Alain Schoffel, Arts primitifs de l'Asie du Sud-Est, Éd. A. et F. Chaffin, 1981, pp. 111-113. Toradja, Sulawesi, Indonesia Wood, horn, buffalo bone, and iron, very beautiful patina of use. H. 22 cm, 22.5 and 38.5 cm Provenance : Collection Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris.