拍品專文
Felines, with their strength and guile, have been a symbol of power for centuries all over the world. The leopard was favoured at the court of Benin City, but in the confederacy of the Kongo it was the lion who was synonymous with greatness. The inference of this lion head would have been obvious to spectators, and we would also suggest that the bared fangs might convery the message "whose who meddle with me will live to regret it". Similar characterists are found in the head of an ivory figure finial in the Walt Disney/Paul Tishman Collection of African Art (Vogel, 1981, p. 212, fig.126, and Robbins and Nooter, 1989, p. 365, fig.951), but the power of the rounded volumes in the present carving, contrasting with the finely carved incisors, is unparalleled.