Female ancestor figure ·  D. R. Congo, Azande / Mangbetu · ID: 3052347

Description

wood, black paint, remnants of human hair and bark, rest., missing part

An impressive figure whose facial features show almost naturalistic touches. The hairstyle, with a slightly raised central braid, has been coated with a substance into which human hair has been worked. The body is lavishly painted in a striped or herringbone pattern. Remnants of the traditional short women’s skirt made of fine bark cloth can be seen around the torso.

A similar female Azande figure with striped body painting was auctioned on 10 April 1984 as lot 162 at Christie’s South Kensington.

Captain Robert Charles Couldrey was a highly-decorated officer with D/107 Brigade Royal Field Artillery during WW1. In the early 1920s he was seconded to the Egyptian army. He later took a civilian role of Controller General of the Sudan War Supply Board in the 1920, a position held through WW2. He was further decorated with the Egyptian Order of the Nile 3rd class in 1937. His distinguished colonial service saw him awarded the Commander of the British Empire in 1942. In the post-WW2 era he was responsible for part of the team organising the reconstruction of Germany.

The granddaughter of Captain Robert Charles Couldrey reports that her grandfather brought this Azande figure back from Sudan along with many other Sudanese artefacts when he left the Sudanese colonial service. When he died, the female figure and other artefacts were passed on to her father, Robert Fade Couldrey.