Figural carved staff "tefalapica" · Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo · ID: 3031716
Vera und Wolfgang Nerlich, Munich, Germany
Description
wood, brown patina, remains of black paint, round staff, carved with a sitting female figure, carrying a bulbous vessel on her head, min. dam., fine cracks, slight traces of abrasion;
“tefalapica” means “the girl of the man working with the hoe” and presents the trophy money in a kind of hoeing competition. In September and October the young men of the Senufo have to cultivate the new yams fields, an exhausting field work, organized as a kind of competition.
The object Figural carved staff “tefalapica” with the object ID 3031716 was last part of the auction 68th tribal art auction at March 3, 2012 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 338 achieved a sales price of EUR 280.
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Comparing literature
Förster, Till, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, Zürich 1988, p. 22, ill. 5