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African traditional forms

Tuesday 14 February 2023, 04:30 PM • Milan

32

Congo Kinshasa, DENGESE

ornamental sword

Estimate

€ 500 - 600

Sold

€ 768

The price includes buyer's premium

Information

cm 56
Asymmetricalmade of light wood.
Name of origin: Ikongo, Ethnic group living in the eastern Congo region on the right bank of the Lukenie River.
Rare wooden specimen used by a ranking notable (Etotshi) during dances organized to celebrate cassava harvests. Period patina. Prestige object
Dark patina light wood with wooden handle shaped according to the characteristics of metal artifacts. The surface of the wood is embellished with reliefs in geometric patterns.
The tradition of making wooden objects, similar to those with metal blades, is also found among the Kuba, an ethnic group living in a large territory extending south of the Lukenie River along the left bank. They also make their famous "Ikula" knife in the wooden form.


Detail of table 68: drawings by Jos Marquart


AnEtotshi of the Dengese group with his wooden sword. Photo of Josef Cornet, a Belgian missionary who lived for years in the Congo, taken from an article in the French magazine "Arts d'Afrique Noire n° 17, Spring 1976", pag. 9 : “A propos e des statues Ndengese, pagg. 6 – 16 Josef Cornet”

Literature

ELSEN JAN & AUTORI VARI, Beauté Fatale: Armes d’Afrique Centrale, Crédit Communal, Bruxelles 1992, pag.120 (292);
ELSEN JAN, De fer et de fierté: Armes blanches d’Afrique Noire du Musée Barbier-Mueller, Genéve & Milan 2003, pag. 204 (524);
Arts d’Afrique Noire n° 17, Primavera 1976 “A propos e des statues Ndengese” pagg. 6 – 16 Josef Cornet, foto di pagina 9;
MARQUART J. & SCHMELTZ J.D.E. & DE JOSSELINE DE JONG J.P.B. “Ethnografisch Album van het Stroomgebied van den Congo” Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff, 1904-1916, Pubblication Van’s Rijks Ethnographisch Museum, tav. 68, fig. 1 (198);