Reliquary figure "mbulu" or "mwete" · Gabon, Kota, Obamba or Mindumu group · ID: 3043560
French Private Collection, Paris
Oger & Semont, Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, 22 June 2007
Massol, Drouot, Paris, 13 May 2009, lot 161
Michael Vignold, Köln, Germany
Boris Kegel-Konietzko, Hamburg, Germany
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 28 May 2011, lot 294
Description
wood, brass and copper sheet, metal nails and -clamps, slightly dam., cracks in the metal plating (coiffure), missing parts through insect caused damage and weathering (dimaond-shaped handle), small traces of corrosion (eyes), base.
The ancestral cult forms the centre of the religious and social life within the family collective. When a patriarch died, various relics were taken from his body and were kept in wickerwork baskets with stylized figures on top. Each family clan owned such a reliquary ensemble, which were all kept in the background of the chiefs hut. At initiation rites the family clans gathered and each clan leader performed a dance holding the respective reliquary in his hands.
The object Reliquary figure “mbulu” or “mwete” with the object ID 3043560 was last part of the auction 88th Tribal Art Auction at March 10, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 366.
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Comparing literature
Perrois, Louis, Art ancestral du Gabon dans les collections du Musée Barbier-Mueller, Genf o.J., p. 191, ill. 9 Lagamma, Alisa (ed.), Eternal Ancestors, New York 2007, ill. 82
Publications
AHDRC: 0048091