Standing female figure, ca 1880 · D. R. Congo, Bembe, Central southern Congo-Brazzaville, Upper Bouenza Basin · ID: 3052826
Josef Herman, Suffolk, Great Britain
Jean Cambier, Brussels, Belgium
Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, Paris, France
Frederick Harry Gordon Hanley, Bournemouth, England
Description
wood, porcelain in eyes, pigments,
These small anthropomorphic miniature figures depict ancestors and are dedicated to them.
Small amounts of power substances (pieces of the individual’s corpse, medicines, magic substances “bilongo”) are placed in a cavity near the anus, in the back or the head. In this way, the figure receives the spirit of the ancestor and is thus transformed into a “nkiteki” (pl. “biteki”) ancestor figure.
The object Standing female figure, ca 1880 with the object ID 3052826 was last part of the auction Auction 106 at April 25, 2026 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 352 achieved a sales price of EUR 2,000.
You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.
Expertise
Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, London, 27 March 2003
Publications
Fagg, William, Miniature Wood Carvings of Africa, New York 1970, p. 58, ill. 49
AHDRC: 0012457