Kongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, circa 1890
Cast copper alloy
Height 6 1/2 inches (16.5 cm)
Provenance: Provincial auction, United Kingdom
The figure stands on an oval integral base with the feet planted flat and the toes marked, the legs held straight and close, and the arms bowed wide from the shoulders so that each encloses an open loop before the hands meet at the abdomen. The head is carried large against the body, with the hair cut close to the skull, ears set high and standing clear, and a face worked with incised brows, ridged lids, a broad flattened nose, and a wide mouth drawn back over the teeth. The metal is finished to a dense blue black with a soft sheen, the raised edges of the brow, the nose, and the knuckles rubbed lighter, and the casting reads even in wall and weight throughout.
Kongo territory ran across the lower Congo River and the Atlantic coast, and by the closing decades of the nineteenth century its carvers and casters were working in sustained contact with European traders, producing figures for exchange alongside those made for local use. The open loop of each arm is the demanding element in a casting of this size, since the wax had to hold that void through the pour, and both loops here are clean and unbroken. The blackened surface is consistent across the whole figure rather than gathered in the recesses, which points to a finish applied at the time of making rather than to accumulated handling.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Kongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, circa 1890
Cast copper alloy
Height 6 1/2 inches (16.5 cm)
Provenance: Provincial auction, United Kingdom
The figure stands on an oval integral base with the feet planted flat and the toes marked, the legs held straight and close, and the arms bowed wide from the shoulders so that each encloses an open loop before the hands meet at the abdomen. The head is carried large against the body, with the hair cut close to the skull, ears set high and standing clear, and a face worked with incised brows, ridged lids, a broad flattened nose, and a wide mouth drawn back over the teeth. The metal is finished to a dense blue black with a soft sheen, the raised edges of the brow, the nose, and the knuckles rubbed lighter, and the casting reads even in wall and weight throughout.
Kongo territory ran across the lower Congo River and the Atlantic coast, and by the closing decades of the nineteenth century its carvers and casters were working in sustained contact with European traders, producing figures for exchange alongside those made for local use. The open loop of each arm is the demanding element in a casting of this size, since the wax had to hold that void through the pour, and both loops here are clean and unbroken. The blackened surface is consistent across the whole figure rather than gathered in the recesses, which points to a finish applied at the time of making rather than to accumulated handling.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
