Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 202. SENUFO HEDDLE PULLEY, CÔTE D'IVOIRE.

SENUFO HEDDLE PULLEY, CÔTE D'IVOIRE

Auction Closed

May 13, 08:41 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collection, New York

SENUFO HEDDLE PULLEY, CÔTE D'IVOIRE


Height: 7 ⅝ in (19.5 cm)

Harold Rome, New York

Ben Heller, New York, acquired from the above

Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above in the late 1970s


Published:

Susan Gagliardi, Senufo Unbound: Dynamics and Identity in West Africa, Milan, Cleveland, 2015, p. 33

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa, February 22 - May 31, 2015; additional venue: Musée Fabre, Montpellier, November 28, 2015 - March 6, 2016

Like many heddle pulleys made by Senufo carvers, this functional object was embellished with delicate ornamentation in order to delight the weaver using it. The hornbill bird, or dynug, is one of the five primordial animals in Senufo cosmology and is iconographically widespread in Senufo material culture (Barbier, ed., Art of Côte d'Ivoire from the Collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, 1993, Vol. 1, p. 61). In this example, the rounded body of the bird, highlighted by its curved beak, connotes fertility. Instead of exhibiting outstretched wings, as is common for heddle pulleys of this type, this bird's finely carved wings rest serenely next to its body. The stylized form and beautifully carved details on the wings of this piece highlight the highly public nature of weaving. When being used one can imagine it incited people to nian dan, or "take a good, thorough look" (Vogel, Baule: African Art, Western Eyes, New Haven, 1997, p. 272).