Songye Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Estimate

60,000 - 90,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

horn, wood, cyas seed, python, chicken feathers
Height: 35 1/4 in (89.5 cm)

with an African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) horn surmounting the head; fragments of Domestic Chicken (Gallus gallus) feathers attached to the head; and a strap covered in African Royal Python (Python regius) and another strung with a Cycas (Cycas circinalis) seed attached to the body together with a tuft of African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) hair.

Provenance

Josef Müller (1887-1977), Solothurn
By descent from the above through the Barbier-Müller family
Merton D. Simpson, New York (inv. no. "3230"), acquired from the above by November 1979
Allan Stone, New York

Exhibited

Allan Stone Tribal Art Museum, New York, Songye Power Figures, November 14, 1995 - February 24, 1996

Literature

Douglas Newton, Tribal Sculpture: Masterpieces from Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific in the Barbier-Mueller Museum, New York, 1995, p. 12, fig. 6
Allan Stone Tribal Art Museum, New York, Songye Power Figures, New York, 1995 (postcard)
Franz Meyer, Phyllis Hattis, Jura Brüschweiler and Jean-Paul Barbier, "Zusammengebrachtes. Josef Müller und seine Kunstwerke", Du - Europäische Kunstzeitschrift, August 1978, p. 71
Kevin Conru, Anonymous Collectors, Brussels, 2007, unpaginated, 08-78, fol. 14 verso
Christie's New York, Selections from the Allan Stone Collection, November 12, 2007, illustrated on the cover