Rare Ndjem Fang reliquary, Sangha River region, Cameroon, wo - Lot 149

Lot 149
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Estimation :
800 - 1000 EUR
Rare Ndjem Fang reliquary, Sangha River region, Cameroon, wo - Lot 149
Rare Ndjem Fang reliquary, Sangha River region, Cameroon, wood H.28cmxW.11cm (plinth) The bent-legged figure appears to be seated on an extension reminiscent of the Fang statues that are customarily placed in the basket where ancestral bones are kept. The back, forearms and legs are adorned with an incised design of rings or short parallel ribs. The brachycephalic head, the triangular face projected forward, with two closely-set round mother-of-pearl eyes and visored superciliary arches, the short arms barely free of the trunk, the hands with open palms treated as flat discs, are all part of an original technique with few examples in the sculptural arts of Gabon and Congo. The piece evokes the iconography of reliquary guardians, and certainly bears witness to the eastward spread of ancestral cult concepts.
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