Standing female figure "za mä" · Liberia, Dan · ID: 3038040
Description
aluminium (most likely from imported goods from Europe), curved short arms, hairdo and loincloth with plaited band pattern, patina, handwritten collection number at the bottom of the base “P 92”;
related to genre objects called “za mä” - “brass person”. These objects which are characterized by naturalistic form, never had any religious significance, they were used by chieftains as pure decoration. The practice of creating group scenes is unique to these brasses. All brass castings are made by specialists, the “zä do mä”, the “brass working persons”.
The object Standing female figure “za mä” with the object ID 3038040 was last part of the auction 81st Tribal Art Auction at October 31, 2015 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 166 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,400.
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Comparing literature
Fischer, Eberhard & Hans Himmelheber, Die Kunst der Dan, Zürich 1976, p. 177 ff.