Lintel of a door frame · Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke/Bangwa · ID: 3034429
Zemanek-Münster Würzburg, 14. September 1996, lot 269
Udo Petry, Hohnhorst, Germany
Description
wood, middle brown patina, camwood powder, carved with crocodiles, water spots, water lilies and two female figures, flanked by mythical creatures, dam., minor missing parts, cracks, paint rubbed off;
presumably the lintel of a palace door frame.
Because of handwritten documents from the Collection Mann it can be assumed, that the lintel was brought to Germany already in 1873 in the context of an Africa expedition to the Gold Coast, Gabon and especially Cameroon.
The lintel could as well come from Walter Vorwerk, who was medical officer of the German protective forces in Cameroon until 1911. It is proved, that even pieces from General Lothar von Trotha got into the Mann’sche Collection via Walter Vorwerk.
The indistinct documentation of the Mann family allows us no definite conclusion about which way the lintel finally got here.
Littérature comparée
Northern, Tamara, The Art of Cameroon, Washington D.C. 1984, p. 79