Ifa priest's beaded bag "apo ileke Ifa" · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3048302
sold
EUR 3,200
Provenance
B.C. Holland (1922-1994) Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USADouglas Dawson Gallery, Chicago
Arte Primitivo, New York, 29 July 2020, Lot 407
Private Collection, Chicago
Size
H: 21,5 cm x 20,5 cm
H: 8.5 inch x 8.1 inch
Description
animal skin, cardboard, fabric, miniature glass beads, base
This bag is lavishly decorated with hundreds of tiny glass beads in beautifully coordinated warm colours. The central motif is a mask face, representing the priest himself or “eshu”, next to it are floral motifs, the edges are trimmed with diamond borders.
Such elaborate bags were the property of the “babalawo” (“father of secrets”) and served to store the utensils needed for divination: sixteen sacred palm nuts “ikin” or divination chain “opele ifa”, a small ivory head “olori ikin” (symbolic of “eshu elegba”), oracle tappers “iroke ifa” and an assortment of shells, bones and stones.
Comparing literature
Drewal, Henry John & John Mason, Beads, Body and Soul, Los Angeles 1998, p. 229
Publications
AHDRC: 0187102