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Obamba / Mindumu (?) (A Kota People)(Gabon). Reliquary Guardian (Mbulu Ngulu). Wood, brass, copper, steel. Height: 23 ¾ ...
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Description
Obamba / Mindumu (?) (A Kota People)(Gabon)Reliquary Guardian (Mbulu Ngulu)
Wood, brass, copper, steel
Height: 23 ¾ inches Width: 12 1/8 inches
Early travelers' illustrated accounts show reliquary guardians placed atop baskets containing skulls and bones of clan ancestors. These reliquaries (bwete or mboy) were placed on raised platforms in special houses kept darkened to instill proper respect and meditation. These rigorously stylized images served as a symbolic representation of the ancestors and were guardians with strong magical potency.
This example fits Category IV of A. and F. Chaffin's morphological classification, "...the classic Kota style which seems to originate in the Franceville region" (Louis Perrois. Ancestral Art of Gabon from the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1986, p.46). Platings of brass and copper, attached with steel staples, are enhanced with chased patterning. The back retains the bare wood. This metal sheathing shows age cracks and is lifting at some jointure areas, most noticeably along the top of the arch. The main face's back shows slightly-etched stains in the wood at the proper left.
Provenance:
Christies Paris, sale 5068, Lot 305
Gary Hendershott, Little Rock
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