Description

Magnificent Nok head. Nigeria, ca. 500 BC - 200 AD. H 23 cm. Reddish-brown terracotta with "granite grus", presumably from a figure. Male head sculpture in the characteristic Nok style: spherical head with strikingly high forehead and pointed chin; moustache and chin beard, decorated with grooves; cap-like coiffure arranged in a ring with accentuated back of the head; grooved hair braids, a kind of sideburns, at the temples. with hairband; stylized hair curved outwards at the nape of the neck; headband; lower eyelids form a circle together with the eyebrows, pierced pupils; open, wide-lipped mouth. With TL analysis by the Kotalla laboratory from 2004! Small missing fragments on the lower hairline, minimal age-related cracks, small holes on the cheek and neck. Mounted. Provenance: Ex collection F.N., Stuttgart, since the 1970s.

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Magnificent Nok head. Nigeria, ca. 500 BC - 200 AD. H 23 cm. Reddish-brown terracotta with "granite grus", presumably from a figure. Male head sculpture in the characteristic Nok style: spherical head with strikingly high forehead and pointed chin; moustache and chin beard, decorated with grooves; cap-like coiffure arranged in a ring with accentuated back of the head; grooved hair braids, a kind of sideburns, at the temples. with hairband; stylized hair curved outwards at the nape of the neck; headband; lower eyelids form a circle together with the eyebrows, pierced pupils; open, wide-lipped mouth. With TL analysis by the Kotalla laboratory from 2004! Small missing fragments on the lower hairline, minimal age-related cracks, small holes on the cheek and neck. Mounted. Provenance: Ex collection F.N., Stuttgart, since the 1970s.

Estimate 5 040 - 6 300 EUR
Starting price 5 040 EUR

* Not including buyer’s premium.
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For sale on Tuesday 16 Jul : 14:00 (CEST)
munich, Germany
Gorny & Mosch
+4989.242.264.30
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Great head of the Nok culture. Nigeria. H with stand 31cm, H without stand 25cm, made of beige-brownish mottled terracotta with elaborate coiffure, arranged in two large bowls, pierced eyes and nostrils. This head probably comes from the same archaeological site as the following number. The Nok culture was originally estimated to date from 500 BC to 200 AD. According to new findings, however, it is thought to have developed between 1500 BC and 900 BC. It then experienced its heyday, from which the majority of known terracotta originates. This heyday came to an abrupt end around the turn of the millennium for reasons that are as yet unknown. It marks the transition from stone use to ironworking in central Nigeria and can also be considered the oldest Iron Age culture in sub-Saharan Africa, where bronze was only introduced after iron. The search for minerals, wood and precious stones in the middle of the 20th century and the construction of roads on the plains and plateaus on both sides of the Niger and Benue rivers have brought to light a large number of works of art from ancient indigenous cultures. However, the geological processes of erosion and accumulation in West Africa are of such intensity that large earth movements can be caused over the course of a few centuries. Apart from heads and figures only a few centimetres in size, which usually remain largely intact, the vast majority of the works of art unearthed are damaged or broken. As a rule, this is not a problem if all the parts belonging to the object can be found and professionally restored, as was apparently the case with the head being examined here. The rough and grainy surface of the untouched figures is also due to erosion. The formerly smooth engobe coating is weathered. One mop of hair partially broken off. Provenance: Ex Coll. Mareidi Stoll-Singer, Munich, in Germany since the 1970s.