Fine carved oracle board "opon ifa" with tapper "iroke ifa" · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3044772
Gert Stoll, Berchtesgaden, Germany
Ulrich Klever, St. Georgen, Germany
Lempertz, Brussels, 25 April 2009, lot 149
After studying zoology, following World War II U. Klever became a journalist working in Hamburg from 1953-1963. He began collecting African art after meeting the dealer Boris Kegel-Konietzko. He is the author of the standard work “Bruckmann’s Handbuch der Afrikanischen Kunst”, Munich, 1975.
Description
wood, old collection number “178-395” and inscription “Ifa Orakelbrett Ife Nigeria”
The “ifa” trays always show a mask face at the rim, associated with “eshu”, who is looked upon as messenger of the deities, and who could not be ignored when asking the oracle. The “ifa” figures, lateron used for soothsaying, were marked with wood flour “iyerosun” (produced by termites) spread on the tray.
The object Fine carved oracle board “opon ifa” with tapper “iroke ifa” with the object ID 3044772 was last part of the auction 90.I Tribal Art and 90.II Contemporary Native American Art at November 17, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 208 achieved a sales price of EUR 500.
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