Kneeling female figure "onile" · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3039578
Description
brass, both hands showing the “ogboni” gesture, handwritten collection number “173” at the bottom, traces of corrosion, small missing parts;
“onile” figures may appear in pairs. They are called “owner of the house” resp. “father and mother, owner of the house”. “House” means the building in which the members of the “ogboni” society stay and were these figures are kept.
The object Kneeling female figure “onile” with the object ID 3039578 was last part of the auction 81st Tribal Art Auction at October 31, 2015 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 357 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,500.
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Comparing literature
Dobbelmann, Th.A.H.M., Der Ogboni-Geheimbund, Berg en Dal 1976, ill. 95