A KONGO OATH TAKING FIGURE

Details
A KONGO OATH TAKING FIGURE

Standing with legs apart, each foot on a rectangular base, large round buttock and waist covered with woven twine, prominent cylindrical umbilicus, rounded shoulders, arms to sides, hands to abdomen, thick neck supporting slightly upthrust head with protruding open mouth, nose broken away at tip, round smooth head, vion point embedded in center of chest, necklace of cloth and fiber strands, some hanging as for as waist, dark yellow surface, the wood a worn brown.
23 1/2in. (59.7cm.) high
Provenance
Chaire Zeisler, Chicago
Literature
Wardwell, 1960, no. xx

Lot Essay

This figure appears never to have had more than three or four metal nails driven into it. The one surviving point, however probably represented an important petition on the part of the individual who placed it there.