Figure - Brass, Copper, Wood - Bakota - Gabon

SMASHING MBULU NGULU GUARDIAN FIGURE KOTA - OBAMBA GABON In a good condition, but with withered back. It dates to around 1920. On stand. Provenance : Ex – collection of Jean Pierre Leprugne. Bought from his gallery at 52, rue Mazarine in Paris by H. Westerdijk in 1977. This beautiful and rather small Mbulu Ngulu combines metal strips and ditto bands to cover its front. It has the elegant lines in the fine, open-work lozange that forms the “legs” of the ancestral figures of the old style. It is one of the most refined pieces of its kind that I know. The whole approach to the subject is one of sophistication, both in the craftmanship employed and in the interrelated balance of the constituting parts. For the Kota- Obamba such a figure represented what they imagined an ancestral spirit would look like, the elements above and next to the face being seen as coiffure extensions. The item shows a wonderfully vintage color on its copper and brass parts, while the reverse exhibits its age in the cracks and bruises in its surface Literature : Yves le Fur ( ed.) : Les Forêts Natales, Paris, 2017, pp. 280 ff. Dimensions : 46 x 28 x 7 cm . People / Region: The Kota – Obamba live in southeastern Gabon. Material: hardwood frame; metal strips, sheets, nails, and staples. Weight: 1. 650 Kg