Kneeling figure "onile" · Nigeria, Yoruba · ID: 3036558
Description
brass, dark patina, holding a flat bowl with snake, delicate scarification marks, crowned by a bearded head with prominent eyes, min. dam., 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 figure “onile” with the object ID 3036558 was last part of the auction 76th tribal art auction at March 22, 2014 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 511.
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Comparing literature
Dobbelmann, Th.A.H.M., Der Ogboni-Geheimbund, Berg en Dal 1976, ill. 97
Publications
Witte, Hans, Earth and the Ancestors: Ogboni Iconography, Amsterdam 1988, p. 74 f.