ANTHROPOZOOMORPHIC ALTAR FIGURE, ATTIOL... - Lot 63 - Giquello

Lot 63
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Estimation :
30000 - 40000 EUR
ANTHROPOZOOMORPHIC ALTAR FIGURE, ATTIOL... - Lot 63 - Giquello
ANTHROPOZOOMORPHIC ALTAR FIGURE, ATTIOL (A-TSHOL), BAGA SITEMU OR MANDORI, GUINEA-BISSAU, GUINEA Presumed time period: Second half of the 19th century Hardwood with a dark brown patina, partly oozing, upholsterer's nails, metal spikes, accidents of use H. 48.9 cm - W. 77.5 cm Provenance : - Patricia Withofs Collection, London - Private collection, New York Bibliography: - Frederik Lamp, Art of the Baga, The Museum for Africa, Art, Prestel, 1996. - David Berliner, Baga religious memories, Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, 2012 As in the lagoon regions of Côte d'Ivoire with the arrival of the 'prophet' William Wade Harris in 1914 or the introduction of the Massa cult in Senufo country in the 1950s, Baga country experienced its cultural and religious revolution with the arrival of Islam in the mid 1950s. The ceremonies were abandoned and the relics attached to them became less important. This 'favourable' environment partly explains the successful collections made in this decade by major dealers and collectors such as Hélène Kamer and Maurice Nicaud. These Tshol were already known at the end of the 19th century (the one from the Musée de l'Homme in 1883), others, in very small numbers, arrived between the two wars (the one from the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse acquired in 1937, from the H. Labouret mission) but these were only acquired by amateurs in the late 1950s. This protective spirit a-Tshol has several functions, it is able to detect evil genies of the bush, crimes, to heal, as to participate in the initiation ceremonies of young people. It is the most respected object of the clan. It is hidden in the sacred house of the clan or of the ancestors, placed on a platform because it must never be in contact with the ground. It is under the care of a fetishist/healer. This one is made up of a human head with an openwork, with a summit crest and a bun, extended by a long bird or crocodile beak on a thin neck resting on a large neck resting on a large cylindrical openwork base. This piece is made up of two monoxyle parts: on one side, the head with the beak and the neck and on the other the base. Tapestry nails punctuate and adorn the object. Like other Tshol, this one must have had animal horns in the cut-out parts of the head, filled with a magical substance. The very deep patina encrusted on the surface was nourished with kola nut juice and palm oil, the blood of a white rooster and palm wine. This a-Tshol is aesthetically one of the most remarkable testimonies of this very ancient cult.
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