Headdress "ngamdak" · Nigeria, Jaba / Koro · ID: 3052078
Starting price
EUR 500
Estimated price
EUR 1,000
Provenance
Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, Germany, 28 October 1975, lot 577Werner & Lotte Krause, Hamburg, Germany
Size
H: 41 cm
H: 16.1 inch
Description
wood, pigments, plant fibre, raffia, red seed pods, collection label “13”
Probably a work by the artist Diga, a Koro carver who was active in the 1930s and 1940s (see AHDRC 0183790).
This crest known as “ngamdak” (meaning “man with bowed legs”) is worn at the top of a dancer’s head performing during biannual celebrations related to the agricultural cycle among the Jaba peoples of Central Nigeria. It appears in pair with the “nyamfaik” crest. The Jaba’s neighbors, the Koro, are known as the artists responsible for the creation of such crests.
Comparing literature
Sieber, Roy, Sculpture of Northern Nigeria, New York 1961, ill. 36 Robbins, Warren M. & Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, o.O. 1989, p. 284, ill. 739