Rare oracle implement ·  D. R. Congo, Songye · ID: 3041952

Description

wood, dark brown patina, strongly encrusted in some areas, paddle-shaped corpus on habile handle, carved with mask face, smoothly polished at the bottom by many years of usage, traces of red pigment and collection number “FX971051” at the same place, slightly dam., minor missing parts (rim, bottom), base;
according to Jordan the unusual object may have served as a friction oracle. The depiction of a “kifwebe” mask face might be a reference to the influence of that regulatory society (Jordan, 2002, p. 13).

The object Rare oracle implement with the object ID 3041952 was last part of the auction 85th Tribal Art Auction at March 4, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 441 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,500.

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Publications

Jordán, Manuel, Ngombo - Wahrsagen und Kunst in Zentralafrika, München 2002, p. 37, ill. 21