A SENUFO STAFF

IVORY COAST

Details

A SENUFO STAFF
Ivory Coast
Tefalipitya, surmounted by a seated female figure on a stool with circular pot on her head, the face with small rectangular mouth with carved teeth, keloids to temples incised panels of scarification to top of the conical breasts, red cotton suspended from ears, cawries ornaments, dark oily patina, metal spike to base.
56 in. (142 cm.) high

Provenance

Lemaire Gallery, Amsterdam, 1966

Lot Essay

See Barbier, J.B. (Ed.), Art of Cte d'Ivoire, Geneva, 1993, vol.II, p.33, no.35, for a similar champion cultivator staff. To work and dance with these staffs is the highest honor a young Senufo male may receive.

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