Fang-Betsi Reliquary Ensemble, Gabon

René Buthaud, Bordeaux, acquired between 1920-1950
Olivier Le Corneur and Jean Roudillon, Paris, by 1968
Paul and Ruth Tishman, New York, by 1970
Jean-Paul Barbier, Geneva
Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva (accession no. "1019.18")
Sotheby's New York, November 18, 2000, lot 118 (cover)
Robert T. Wall Family, Telluride (accession no. "W-0061"), acquired at the above auction

Galerie Le Corneur - Roudillon, Paris, Collection d'un Amateur: Art Nègre, 1920 - 1950, May 17 - June 8, 1968
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Sculpture of Black Africa: The Paul Tishman Collection, 1970
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (additional venue), August 31 - November 1, 1970
University of Texas College of Fine Arts, Austin (additional venue), February 14 - April 18, 1971
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Ancestral Art of Gabon from the Collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, January 26 - June 15, 1986
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (additional venue), August 28, 1986 - March 22, 1987
Musée d'Arts Africains, Océaniens, Amérindiens, Marseille, Byeri Fang: Sculptures d'Ancêtres en Afrique, June 6 - September 6, 1992
Tambaran Gallery, New York, Gabon, October 1 - 15, 2007

Olivier Le Corneur and Jean Roudillon, Collection d'un Amateur: Art Nègre, 1920 - 1950, Paris, 1968, cat. 26
Roy Sieber and Arnold Rubin, Sculpture of Black Africa: The Paul Tishman Collection, Los Angeles, 1970 (First Published 1968 by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; circulated by the International Exhibitions Foundation 1970-1971), p. A-17, fig. A-21
Louis Perrois, Arts du Gabon: Les Plastiques du Bassin de l'Ogooue, Arnouville, 1979, p. 77, fig. 62
Louis Perrois, Ancestral Art of Gabon from the Collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, 1985, p. 219, fig. 71
Louis Perrois, Byeri Fang: Sculptures d'Ancêtres en Afrique, Marseille, 1992, p. 204

Figure: Good condition overall; proper left upper leg broken through thigh with traditional repair (two iron tacks inserted), later glued and filled; vertical rod on reverse broken and reattached, wooden wedge added to bottom for mounting, vertical age crack through proper right side of head, neck and torso, partially filled, hairline crack through proper right thigh; pierced through central braid of coiffure, nicks and scratches, wear and tear from handling; "BMG1019-18" in white pigment and "W_-0061" in silver ink on reverse of rod; fine aged partially crusty medium brown patina. Box: Very good condition overall for an object of this rarity; stress fractures on top edge of lid and bottom of container with partial losses; metal nails inserted on top and bottom, replacing wooden pegs with one wooden peg remaining in place, fiber stitchings on reverse, partially broken and very fragile, two dry leather handles on each side of lid; fine aged medium brown patina on the outside, the top quarter of the box faded (where covered by lid), aged dusty patina on the inside with traces of camwood powder.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The definitive features of this ancestor figure are characteristic of the Betsi sub-style of the southern regions of Fang territory, north of the Ogooué River. A closely related figure with tri-parted coiffure, holding an object in front of the body and similar trance-like expression was collected in situ  before 1894 by the German explorer Eugen Zintgraff and is today in the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin (accession no. "III C 5936", published in Einstein 1915: pl. 41).

Complete Fang reliquary ensembles consisting of a bark container for the relics of deceased clan elder surmounted by a sculptural element made of wood, such as a head, torso or full figure, are exceedingly rare. While the early Western collectors showed only little interest in the cultural context of objects and were mostly intrigued by the sculptural elements of reliquary ensembles, the Fang people gave primacy to the relics and their containers. Lagamma (2007: 9) notes: "they considered the ancestral relics accompanying them to be of transcendent importance. In their indigenous context, the relics were the exalted sacra, while the relatively profane sculpture was accessible to the eyes of the uninitiated members of the community. [... Tessmann reports that] in some parts of equatorial Africa the sculptural elements were actively offered for sale to Europeans, whereas the containers with the relics could not be easily acquired." The completeness of the offered lot suggests that it might have been collected at the time when the traditional Fang spiritual belief system collapsed and ancestral relics as part of ritual paraphernalia had lost their meaning.