Lot Essay
Perrois (1986, p. 46) places such reliquaries in his catalogue designation III. They are from the northern Obamba people who live in the Sebe Valley of the Upper Ogowe River in Gabon.
This reliquary is one of fifty-eight that was purchased from J. Laporte with other African objects by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in 1929. Mr. Laporte was a French District officer who was stationed in Africa and formed a collection of Ivory Coast and Gabon sculpture while he was there. In order to raise the funds to send curator Henry Hall on an expedition to Sierra Leone, ninety-seven African pieces were offered at an auction held at the Barclay Hotel on April 16, 1936. This was one of eight Kota reliquaries sold (see Wardwell, 1986, pp. 23-25).
This reliquary is one of fifty-eight that was purchased from J. Laporte with other African objects by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in 1929. Mr. Laporte was a French District officer who was stationed in Africa and formed a collection of Ivory Coast and Gabon sculpture while he was there. In order to raise the funds to send curator Henry Hall on an expedition to Sierra Leone, ninety-seven African pieces were offered at an auction held at the Barclay Hotel on April 16, 1936. This was one of eight Kota reliquaries sold (see Wardwell, 1986, pp. 23-25).