Fertility doll ·  Cameroon, Namchi · ID: 3037401

Description

wood, slightly shiny, brown patina, of typical form with u-shaped legs, massive shoulders and simplified facial features, several piercings in the area of the head, min. dam., small missing parts (fingers), base;
among the Namchi, unadorned dolls made by blacksmiths are young girl’s playthings. When beads, bells and coins are added, however, the doll becomes a surrogate baby for a woman who is having difficulty in getting pregnant. The woman treats the figure like a newborn. She feeds it gruel and carries it on her back, as a mother would a child. The decoration duplicates the adornment worn by young initiates returning to the village after their period of seclusion.

The object Fertility doll with the object ID 3037401 was last part of the auction 78th tribal art auction at October 18, 2014 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 107 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,000.

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Publications

Bofinger, Brigitte & Wolfgang, Puppen aus Afrika, Stuttgart 2006, p. 55