Seated figure "nomoli" · Sierra Leone, Sherbro · ID: 3041487
sold
EUR 16,000
Provenance
American Private Collection, ConnecticutPace Gallery, New York, USA (No. 53 1063)
Size
H: 22 cm
H: 8.7 inch
Description
lime stone, wreath-like headgear, dam., missing part (base), slight traces of abrasion;
such figures were found in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and on the Ivory Coast. They were used in fertility rites to grant a good rice harvest. The treatment of the “nomoli” was not affected by reference for them. If the harvest was not satisfying, it might have happened that the stone figures were whipped, sometimes until they were damaged or even destroyed.
Comparing literature
Tagliaferri, Aldo & Arno Hammacher, Die steinernen Ahnen, Graz 1974, ill. 9 f.