MBULU NGULU

Details

A FINE KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Mbulu ngulu
The concave oval face with grooved copper panels and cruciform brass strips, the crescent mouth with cross-hatching, the lateral panels with grooved and triangular ornament, two pendants below, the crescent crest with smaller crescent in relief formed of banded brass and iron, ring neck and incised chevrons on pierced lenticular body, the reverse with raised lozenge panel
60cm. high

Provenance

M. Gabrel, a diamond dealer, collected between 1890 and 1900

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 20.825% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €90,000 (NLG 198.334). If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €90,000 then the hammer price of a lot is calculated at 20.825% of the first €90,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €90,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually. For each lot the Buyer's Premium is calculated as 28.125% of the hammer price up to a value of €90,000 plus 19.2% of any amount in excess of €90,000.

Lot Essay

The inclusion of iron panels in the metal surface of a Kota reliquary is very unusual, as is the incised mouth with its happy smile. The present example is classified by Louis Perrios as in his Category IV, which he says appears to originate in the Franceville region of South-Eastern Gabon (ancestral art of Gabon, Geneva, 1985, p.46).

The original owners of this fine and large example thought to enhance its qualities further by hollowing out the wood behind the eyes so that small red light bulbs could be lit to shine through the front.

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