Lot: 29

77th tribal art auction

Standing warriors effigy

India, Naga

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Canadian Private Collection H: 29.9 inch 1200 EUR
plus 27 % commission, VAT, transport and insurance

wood, matt brown patina, armed with a short knife and a gun (?), beard and coiffure of animal hair, neck lobe of human hair bound by a traditional hair board and a band of fabric, ear ornament of small animal horn (of a special short statured kind of Carpicornus species), incised scarification marks on the cheeks, slightly dam., missing parts (gun), traces of insect caused damage (back), cracks (upper part of the body, right leg);
statues as the present one were made to recall eminent men or make their owners prestige and authority visible. They were kept inside a dwelling or, more often, inside the "morung", the house of the clans men, for decorative purposes.


Somaré Grata & Leonard Vigorelli, The Nagas, Bergamo 1992, p. 78