Pair of "eshu" dance staffs · Nigeria, Yoruba, Ede · ID: 3051074

Name: Pair of "eshu" dance staffs
SKU: 3051074
Price: 1700 EUR
Availability: SoldOut

sold EUR 1,700

Provenance

Erwin & Susanne Melchardt, Vienna, Austria

Size

H: 28 cm (figures) / 61 cm (with cowrie strands)

H: 11.0 inch (figures) / 24.0 inch (with cowrie strands)

Description

wood, hide, cowrie snails, base

These figures are worn round the neck of female worshippers of “eshu” (the “trickster” god) so that they hang upside down over the breasts of the devotee and are more or less hidden among the strands of cowries.

Cowries were formerly used as money. The fact that “eshu hides behind cowries”, as the Yoruba say, indicates that the trickster is present in all money transactions, especially on the market, where strangers come into contact with each other and quarrels may easily arise.

The object Pair of “eshu” dance staffs with the object ID 3051074 was last part of the auction Auction 103 at November 16, 2024 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 378 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,700.

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