A fine Songo scepter

the slender shaft pierced at the tip and supporting the complex finial with four alternating male and female masks surmounted by a circular platform with an abstract figure, two birds and probably a drum; '855' on the base; fine dark brown and slightly resinous patina.

Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham Museum of Art, Chokwe: Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples, November 1, 1998 - January 3, 1999 (for additional venues see bibliography, Jordán 1998)

Jordán 1998: plate 25

'Songo carvers produced symbolically complex scepters, often combining figures to represent scenes, events or human occurences. Above the mask representations on the Brill scepter's finial, a schematized ancestral character stands in the company of birds and what may be a drum. Birds may symbolically relate to royalty, spirituality and awareness. Drums normally indicate a ritual, ceremonial or transitional social context' (Jordán 1998: plate 25).