Lot: 230

88th Tribal Art Auction

Ceremonial headdress "kwonro"

Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Carl Otto Hultén, Malmö, Sweden H: 18.9 inch This object is not available anymore.

wood, polychrome paint, wickerwork, cloth, quite unusually in round shape, rep. (breakages), paint rubbed off in parts.
The "kwonro" ceremonial headdress is worn in a public dance that celebrates to the community the completion of "kwonro" and the second grade of "poro". The openwork figure or ideogram in the centre is one of the most common images in Senufo graphic arts, that of the "ndeo" or "mandeo" (pl. "mandebele") or nature spirit. These crests are rare, only few of them are preserved.


Goldwater, Robert, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa, Greenwich 1964, ill. 75