Scarce Female Figure Minsereh - very dense and extremely heavy hardwood of a species of tree belonging to the Ebony family - Mende-Temne - Sierra Leone

Scarce Female Figure Minsereh – Mende-Temne – Sierra Leone In fine state and clearly deeply vintage in character. It dates to the 1930s. On stand. Provenance: Ex – collection of Gerbrand Luttik, Soest-Amsterdam. Bought from his gallery Walu by H. Westerdijk in 1990. This so-called Minsereh figure was employed in the Yassi society, an organization run by females set on divination and healing. The divination was meant to find out what was behind the distress of a person in need of psychological help. The members were believed to be able to heal the person with medicine and to eliminate the cause of the illness by magical means. Such cultgroups existed among the Mende, Temne, Sherbro and Bullom. In contrast to the many masks found in this region, full sculptures were rarely collected. What we see is a young lady with an elegant hairdo consisting of a central comb and two braids to the sides. She has the for the style typical high breasts, strong torso, broad hips and tapering shortened legs. Face and body show scarification patterns. The patina is crusty on hardwood. Some white pigment in ears, eyes and mouth. Fine old item carved in very dense material. At some places the wood is abraded, probably to get stuff for preparing medicine. Literature: Tom Phillips (ed.) : Africa, the art of a continent, London etc. , 1995, pp. 472-473. See also: Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter: African Art in American Collections, Washington- London, 1989, p. 149. Dimensions: 49 x 10 x 10 cm. People / Region: the principal peoples using such figures were the Mende and Sherbro of S. E. Sierra Leone. Material: very dense and extremely heavy hardwood of a species of tree belonging to the Ebony family. Weight: 1. 27 kg. incl. stand Sold with handwritten declaration of authenticity by Dr. P. Westerdijk, museum ethnologist and cultural anthropologist specialized, for over 50 years now, in the study of the material cultures in African nations that live south of the Sahara.