Exceptionally rare stool. Ebira (Igbira), Nigeria. H 63cm, ø 53cm. Carried by five figures, two females with scarification marks and three males, the latter each with pipes. The large seat plate is slightly inclined downwards, the base plate slightly curved upwards. Raised dot decorations around both plates. With the publication! The stool was made for an elder in Adogo in Ebira around 1920 and is illustrated in J. Picton On Artifact and Identity at the Niger-Benue Confluence , in African Arts, Vol.XXIV, 1991, No. 3, pp. 35-49, 93f. and fig.14. According to Picton, the female figures could represent the Akoko-Edo Virgin, while the pipe-smoking men are emblematic of the authority of the elders. The same stool is illustrated again in: Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley, exhibition catalog Los Angeles Fowler Museum (2011) p. 149, no. 4.12. Black-brown, partially encrusted patina; cracks and chips due to prolonged use, especially on the base plate. Provenance: Ex collection Manfred Schäfer, Ulm.