Colon figure "bitumba" · D. R. Congo, Yombe · ID: 3053543
Starting price
EUR 2,000
Estimated price
EUR 3,000
Provenance
Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, Germany, 9 May 1981, lot 222Galerie Fred & Jens Jahn, Munich, Germany
Walter Bareiss, Greenwich, USA & Salach, Germany
Guy van Rijn, Brussels, Belgium
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, Germany, 1 March 2008, lot 473
Arno Henseler, Munich, Germany
Size
H: 28 cm
H: 11.0 inch
Description
wood, pigments, glass, mirror glass,
“Bitumba” figures were placed in specially constructed burial houses and served to commemorate important deceased individuals. Some of these structures had only two or three walls; the open front allowed a view of the multicoloured figures, which were displayed on a table or altar. Offerings for the deceased were placed on this altar. Once the burial houses were no longer in use, they were left to fall into disrepair. The figures were subsequently either returned to the family’s possession, sold off, or left behind and allowed to decay.
Publications
Jahn, Jens (ed.), Colon, München 1983, ill. 129
AHDRC: 0018587