Lot: 295

86th Tribal Art Auction

Standing figure

Nigeria, Chamba

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Alain Berck-Vitz, Stockholm, Sweden H: 19.7 inch sold

wood, brown patina, red pigment, pointed face with projecting ears, massive helmet-shaped headdress, elongated cylindrical trunk with drilled armpits, just like the drilled ear holes presumably used for attachment of magical loading, slightly dam. (ears), cracks, base;
the Chamba live on the border between present-day Cameroon and Nigeria. They carve different types of wooden sculptures for different uses. Some of them depict named ancestors or cultural heroes which were placed on shrines.


Evers, Christophe, Art of the Upper Benue River, Brussels 2003, p. 29