Null NIGERIA - BENIN
Altar plate from the kingdom of Ifé - representing the cour…

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NIGERIA - BENIN Altar plate from the kingdom of Ifé - representing the court warriors Bronze - H. 17 cm

202

NIGERIA - BENIN Altar plate from the kingdom of Ifé - representing the court warriors Bronze - H. 17 cm

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Estim. 7 200 - 9 000 EUR

Rare pair of ram's heads uhunmwun-elao (uhumwelao). Kingdom of Owo or Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria. H 35.5 and 37 cm. Like those of the Edo/Bini (Benin Kingdom), the altars of high-ranking Owo chiefs were decorated with heads, oliphants, carved tusks and other sacred objects. Similar to the bronze heads of the Benin kingdom, the wooden ram heads, the osamasinmi, were given libations when the first yams were harvested. They embody the idea of the ancestors as mediators for the transfer of the fertilizing life force from the gods, which finds a striking sculptural expression in the emphasis on the exponential curvature of the horns and the powerful thrust of the breastbone. Illustrated in: K.-F. Schaedler, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture (2009), p. 36. Minor abrasions, otherwise intact. Provenance: Ex collection Manfred Schäfer, Ulm.

Estim. 560 - 700 EUR

Lidded bowl. Kingdom of Owo or Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria. ø 39cm. Of round form, presumably for the utensils of the Ifa oracle Opon Igede (Owo); the lid is richly decorated with animals and a palm tree, the lid knob is carved with an ancestor's head, as they were on the altars of the Obas of Benin, so that an origin from Benin suggests itself - then possibly for the storage of kola nuts; the bowl is divided once on the inside. A very similar bowl was offered at Sotheby's New York, May 19, 2001, lot 151. Black-brown, matt patina, lower plate damaged by termite damage, but professionally restored. Provenance: Ex Coll. Mareidi and Gert Stoll, Munich, in Germany since the mid to late 1960s.

Estim. 700 - 900 EUR

Tête en bronze

Estim. 50 - 80 EUR

AFRICA IFE head in bronze H. 59 cm

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