Slit drum "nkonko" ·  D. R. Congo, Yombe · ID: 3035997

Description

wood, dark brown patina, slightly encrusted patina, plantfibre cord, boat-shaped corpus, crowned by a human head, min. dam., small missing parts, slight traces of abrasion, base;
Robert Farris Thompson states that the images adorning wooden slit gongs may represent important dead persons, and that the tones may allude to the voices of the ancestors.

The object Slit drum “nkonko” with the object ID 3035997 was last part of the auction 75th tribal art auction at November 30, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 450.

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Comparing literature

Brincard, Marie-Therese, Sounding forms, Washington D.C. 1989, p. 122