Lot 112
  • 112

Yoruba-Owo Ivory Kneeling Female Figure, Nigeria

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • african elephant ivory
  • Height: 6 1/2 inches (16.5 cm)
made of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) ivory.

Provenance

Alain de Monbrison, Paris
Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, New York, acquired from the above on June 30, 1989

Exhibited

Pace Primitive, New York, New Acquisitions of African Art, October 1 - 30, 1999

Literature

Pace Primitive, New Acquisitions of African Art (postcard), New York, 1999

Catalogue Note

For a closely related kneeling female figure carved from  ivory in the collection of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (inv. no. "96.-41-1") see Kotz (1999: 74, pl. 46).  Roslyn A. Walker (in Kotz 1999: 74) comments on this figure: "The function of full ivory figures depicting men or women is not known.  They may be related to olori ikin, the miniature ivory heads that Ifa diviners used in the divination ritual."