West Africa
19th century
Wood, fiber, shells, iron, and inserted ritual materials
Height: 14¼ in (36.2 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, France; The Ginnel Gallery, Manchester, UK, 1962
This standing female figure carries a dense accumulation of ritual materials — iron nails driven into the torso, a cowrie shell necklace, fiber waistband, and an encrusted surface with residual red pigment on the head — consistent with a power object activated through repeated use, addition, and ceremonial handling. Scarification lines are incised across the body, and the front-facing stance and compact proportions give the figure a direct and concentrated presence. Without a specific documented cultural attribution, the figure is described broadly as West African, though its formal and material character places it within traditions of ritual power objects found across the Congo Basin region.
The Ginnel Gallery, Manchester label dated 1962 and priced at £200 sterling provides a specific and early documented collecting point, placing the object within the mid-twentieth-century European trade in African art. The combination of the old gallery label, French private collection history, and the density of intact ritual materials gives this figure an unusually complete documentary and material record.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
West Africa
19th century
Wood, fiber, shells, iron, and inserted ritual materials
Height: 14¼ in (36.2 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, France; The Ginnel Gallery, Manchester, UK, 1962
This standing female figure carries a dense accumulation of ritual materials — iron nails driven into the torso, a cowrie shell necklace, fiber waistband, and an encrusted surface with residual red pigment on the head — consistent with a power object activated through repeated use, addition, and ceremonial handling. Scarification lines are incised across the body, and the front-facing stance and compact proportions give the figure a direct and concentrated presence. Without a specific documented cultural attribution, the figure is described broadly as West African, though its formal and material character places it within traditions of ritual power objects found across the Congo Basin region.
The Ginnel Gallery, Manchester label dated 1962 and priced at £200 sterling provides a specific and early documented collecting point, placing the object within the mid-twentieth-century European trade in African art. The combination of the old gallery label, French private collection history, and the density of intact ritual materials gives this figure an unusually complete documentary and material record.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
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