From our African Collection: A Mali Bamana Figure on Horse. circa 1900. 12" wide at base, 60" tall. The Bamana Empire (also Bambara Empire or Ségou Empire) was a large West African state based at Ségou, now in Mali. This state was established after the fall of the Mali Empire and the Keita dynasty, as a smaller Bambara Empire founded by other Bambara families related to the Keita clan. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established c...

From our African Collection: Large scale tall figure with scarification, Dogon and Songe, Tanzania. Square Base with support 24 x 24", 72" h.

A very impressive African tribal Senufo bird statue measuring 61.75 inches high with a 25" wingspan. The bird's wings are carved in relief with images of lizards, crocodiles, turtles and birds. The body beneath the beak has a carving of a large lizard. The rest of the bird features repeated geometric carvings on front and back. In very good condition with expected splits to wood and various minor conditions associated with age...

From our African Collection: A Baga Figure. 18" w, 48" h. TYPES OF ART Wooden figures, often worn or carried in the form of masks, are used by the initiation societies to educate initiates about the role of the spirits whom they represent. Large wooden serpent figures appear at initiations, and carved anthropomorphic figures are placed on shrines. The ancestors are represented in figures that embody both human and animal characteristics...

From our African Collection: A Igbo Pipe Smoker Figure from Southeastern Nigeria. Circa 1940. 9" x 30" h. Extremely rare and in great condition.

From our African Collection: A Nok Terracotta Figure, 18" w, 50" h. The small head is 3 x 4". Nok refers to the culture associated with a one hundred square kilometer area in central Nigeria where thousands of terracotta figures were found. These figures were first encountered in tin mines by Colonel J. Dent Young in 1928 and were classified as Nok by Bernard Fagg in 1943...

From our African Collection: A Burkino Faso Flying Wing Shield, circa 1940. 24 x 72" Many of the ancient artistic traditions for which Africa is so well known have been preserved in Burkina Faso because so many people continue to honor the ancestral spirits, and the spirits of nature. In great part they honor the spirits through the use of masks and carved figures. The history of Burkina Faso is dominated by its largest ethnic group, the Mossi peoples...

From our African Collection: A Nomoli Figure from Sierra Leone made from Stone. 9" across at base, 24" h. Nomoli figurines are among the earliest works of art from Sierra Leone. The Nomoli figurines and similar stone sculptures are the only known remains of an empire that existed hundreds of years ago in what is Sierra Leone and Liberia today. Nomoli figurines are often associated with the Mende people as they are often buried on Mende land...

From our African Collection: Igbo Figure from Nigeria 12" across, 20" h. Funerary Prince's Mask, purchased from Eastern Nigerian Ebo Family Ancestral Collection. The Igbo people are a meta-ethnicity native to the present-day south-central and southeastern Nigeria and also Equatorial Guinea.There has been much speculation about the origins of the Igbo people, as it is unknown how exactly the group came to form.Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger...

From our African Collection: A Senufo Winged Figure,circa 1960. 72" h. The Senufo people, also known as Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a West African ethnolinguistic group. They consist of diverse subgroups living in a region spanning the northern Ivory Coast, the southeastern Mali and the western Burkina Faso. One sub-group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...

From our African Collection: a Yoruba Granary Door, circa 1930. 32 x 52" h. Doors of these granaries are often adorned with impressive carvings of animals or people which serve as invocations of deities or spirits, or as symbols of status. The stored grain is considered "safe" when it is guarded by the ancestors whose images are depicted on granary doors. These doors protected the window-like opening into each family's grain storage building, and used a simple sliding door lock...

Anthropomorphic Lega mask from the Kievu & Maniema region in Eastern Congo. H. 22 cm. First half of the 20th century. Provenance: Hans Petereit, Cologne, Germany Fily Keita, Los Angeles, USA Michel Boulanger, Liège, Belgium Goldfield Auctions, Luxembourg, 27 June 2021, Lot 105. Guy van Rijn archive: ao-0186890-001

From our African Collection: An Yoruba Maternity Cult Figure from Nigeria, circa 1940...

From our African Collection: A Yoruba Metal Wheel Shrine, circa 1900. approx 80" h. TYPES OF ART The arts of the Yoruba are as numerous as their deities, and many objects are placed on shrines to honor the gods and the ancestors. Beautiful sculpture abounds in wood and brass and the occasional terracotta. Varied masking traditions have resulted in a great diversity of mask forms. Additional important arts include pottery, weaving, beadworking and metalsmithing. HISTORY The oral hist...

A late 19th to early 20th century Montol figure with a great provenance. This hardwood female figure stands 35,5 cm tall. A very strong figure with possible influence from the Goemai, Chamba or Mumuye. Provenance: Collected in 1967-68 by Daniel Mato, former curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary, department of art history. Amyas Naegele, New York, ca. 2002. Robert Beckman, Henderson, Nevada. Srdjan Sremac, The Hague. Exhibited ...

From our African Collection: A Makonde Legionnaire from Tanzania, circa 1940. 12" wide at center, 52" tall. The Makonde are an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania, northern Mozambique, and Kenya. The Makonde developed their culture on the Mueda Plateau in Mozambique. At present they live throughout Tanzania and Mozambique, and have a small presence in Kenya.The Makonde population in Tanzania was estimated in 2001 to be 1,140,000, and the 1997 census in Mozambique put the Makonde population in ...

Superb and rare mask with a very refined carving, representing a chief, with detailed coiffe, eyes, mouth, beard and scarifications. Wood, with fine patina. R.D. Congo, Bena Lulua or Luluwa ethnic group, early 20th century. Height: 35.5 cm. The mask is nicely mounted on a custom stand. Obvious signs of age, otherwise very good condition. Provenance: old Paris collection. Reference: The Berlin Ethnologic Museum owns a Luluwa figure representing a chief, made of wood, 74 cm high, 19th century, ac...

From our Collection: Nigerian Bust from the Kingdo of Ife from the 20th century. 4" w, 19" h. Ife is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ife is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of 509,813. According to the traditions of the Yoruba religion, Ife was founded by the order of the Supreme God Olodumare by Obatala. Ife ( pronounced ee-feh) is today regarded as the spiritual heartland of the Yoruba people living in...