Lot Essay
We have photographed the stool without the fringe about the waist normally worn by this magnificent male figure, so as not to distract the viewer from the immense power of the volumes assembled "by an artist who was afraid of nothing" to use a phrase of William Fagg's (1968, no.264). From the thrust of the head within the rectangle of the upraised arms, through the cleft back, the rounded belly and buttocks, the powerful thighs, to the large feet there is not a hesitant nor feeble line in the whole sculpture. Furthermore our master carver has not neglected attention to such details as the clavicles, a slight curve to the mouth, a hemispherical umbilicum to compensate for the loss of the breasts with which he endowed the female figures which are undoubtedly from his hand.
There appears to be only one other male figure stool known by this master - in the Smith College Museum of Art (Robbins and Nooter, Washington, 1989, p.471, no.1211), where there is also a companion female figure stool (no.1212). Apart from the present stool and the two mentioned above, there appear to be only four other female figure stools which can be undeniably attributed to the same hand: one collected by F.W.Snow, a consulting metallurgical engineer to the U.M.H.K. from 1914-22, on an expedition to the copper mines of Katanga in 1914 (Christie's, 7 July 1970, lot 68); another which formed part of the H.H.Sadruddin Aga Khan's collection (Sotheby's, 27 June 1983, lot 59) and now in the William McCarty-Cooper collection which will be sold by Christie's in New York in May 1992; another in the Robert H.Tannahill Foundation, Detroit Institute of Art (Kerchache, Paudrat and Stephan, 1988, p.452,no.724); and one which Lance and Roberta Entwistle have kindly informed us that they know of in an American collection.
To these seven superb carvings, which are undeniably by the same master carver, can be added two female figure stools and two with addorsed male and female figures, which might be works from the hand of our master, or from his workshop: a female stool in the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Schmalenbach, 1988, p.266, no.172, which wears a fibre fringe about the loins similar to that on the present figure); a female stool from the collection of General Wibier, now in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren (Olbrechts, 1959, p.148, Pl.163 and XXXIV; Trowel and Nevermann, 1968, p.132); a double figure stool formerly in the collection of R.Reisdorff, Brussels (Olbrechts, op.cit. Pl.161 and 162 and XXXIV, and Bastin, 1984, p.355, fig.379), and a double figure stool in the collection of Marc and Denyze Ginsberg (Sieber and Walker, 1987, p.110, fig.61).
All the carvings listed above are likely to have been collected prior to 1925, or are definitely recorded as having been collected before that date: the Entwistle stool was reputedly collected at the end of the last century. The strength of the carvings would endorse an early date for our carver, and his workshop, which must have flourished from the beginning of this century to 1925/30. The female figure stool in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Zurich (Leuzinger, 1970, no.V26), and another in the deHavenon collection (Robbins, 1971, no. 224) would appear to be from other workshops, and probably carved at a slightly later date. A male figure stool in the Museum of Mankind, London, which was presented by Webster Plass and exhibited at the World Trade Fair in 1938 (Plass, 1956, no.37-E) is carved in a softer wood and of a style deriative of ours, probably carved in the ensuing decade - i.e. the late 1920s/1930s.
Songye prestige stools are akin to those of the Luba, and probably derive from them. Flam discusses the symbolic structure of Luba stools (Flam, 1971, pp.54-59), where he illustrates a Songye stool (fig.6) with a kneeling female figure somewhat similar to the one in Zurich: he sees the figures as symbolic ancestors, a link between the dead and the living, an affirmation both of the power of the chief and of ancestral continuity.
For additional views see illustrations overleaf
There appears to be only one other male figure stool known by this master - in the Smith College Museum of Art (Robbins and Nooter, Washington, 1989, p.471, no.1211), where there is also a companion female figure stool (no.1212). Apart from the present stool and the two mentioned above, there appear to be only four other female figure stools which can be undeniably attributed to the same hand: one collected by F.W.Snow, a consulting metallurgical engineer to the U.M.H.K. from 1914-22, on an expedition to the copper mines of Katanga in 1914 (Christie's, 7 July 1970, lot 68); another which formed part of the H.H.Sadruddin Aga Khan's collection (Sotheby's, 27 June 1983, lot 59) and now in the William McCarty-Cooper collection which will be sold by Christie's in New York in May 1992; another in the Robert H.Tannahill Foundation, Detroit Institute of Art (Kerchache, Paudrat and Stephan, 1988, p.452,no.724); and one which Lance and Roberta Entwistle have kindly informed us that they know of in an American collection.
To these seven superb carvings, which are undeniably by the same master carver, can be added two female figure stools and two with addorsed male and female figures, which might be works from the hand of our master, or from his workshop: a female stool in the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Schmalenbach, 1988, p.266, no.172, which wears a fibre fringe about the loins similar to that on the present figure); a female stool from the collection of General Wibier, now in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren (Olbrechts, 1959, p.148, Pl.163 and XXXIV; Trowel and Nevermann, 1968, p.132); a double figure stool formerly in the collection of R.Reisdorff, Brussels (Olbrechts, op.cit. Pl.161 and 162 and XXXIV, and Bastin, 1984, p.355, fig.379), and a double figure stool in the collection of Marc and Denyze Ginsberg (Sieber and Walker, 1987, p.110, fig.61).
All the carvings listed above are likely to have been collected prior to 1925, or are definitely recorded as having been collected before that date: the Entwistle stool was reputedly collected at the end of the last century. The strength of the carvings would endorse an early date for our carver, and his workshop, which must have flourished from the beginning of this century to 1925/30. The female figure stool in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Zurich (Leuzinger, 1970, no.V26), and another in the deHavenon collection (Robbins, 1971, no. 224) would appear to be from other workshops, and probably carved at a slightly later date. A male figure stool in the Museum of Mankind, London, which was presented by Webster Plass and exhibited at the World Trade Fair in 1938 (Plass, 1956, no.37-E) is carved in a softer wood and of a style deriative of ours, probably carved in the ensuing decade - i.e. the late 1920s/1930s.
Songye prestige stools are akin to those of the Luba, and probably derive from them. Flam discusses the symbolic structure of Luba stools (Flam, 1971, pp.54-59), where he illustrates a Songye stool (fig.6) with a kneeling female figure somewhat similar to the one in Zurich: he sees the figures as symbolic ancestors, a link between the dead and the living, an affirmation both of the power of the chief and of ancestral continuity.
For additional views see illustrations overleaf