Standing figure "mu po"
Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke
sold
EUR 1,500
Provenance
Clement F. Egerton, England, collected in situ (1935)Christie’s, London, 16 October 1979, lot 112
Christie’s, London, 24 March 1988, lot 213
Bonhams, London, 21 August 2000, lot 94
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 5 March 2011, lot 294
Size
H: 34,5 cm
H: 13.6 inch
Description
wood, dark brown patina overall with some glossy areas, slightly dam., cracks, minor missing part (left foot tip), wooden base.
Egerton spent several months in Cameroon as a guest of King N’jike II of Bangangte. In 1938 Egerton published a record of his stay, where he wrote: “People came from the country round about with things they hoped to sell to me, stools, masks, pipes and little figures used by sorcerers, of which I am making a collection”. Finally he acquired sixteen figures. His daughter, Mrs Morris Egerton Adams sold this collection in London at Christie’s in 1979.
Comparing literature
F. Clement C. Egerton, "African Majesty, A Record of Refuge in the Court of the King of Bangangte in the French Cameroons", London 1938Publications
AHDRC: 0010594