260246 - Extremly Rare & Antique African Mbembe sculpture on stand - Nigeria

This Mbembe sculpture was collected in my private collection in 1991.

This culpture is dated begin 20th century and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Without a doubt, a drum component like the sculptures unveiled by Hélène Leloup in 1974. (See last photo)

This Mbembe sculpture appears to have originally been an integral part of a monumental, carved drum that was central to the spiritual life of the Mbembe. This example's exposure to the elements over long periods has resulted in intense weathering, which has become a dramatic aspect of its aesthetic.

The only complete early example of such a drum that has survived is in the Ethnological Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage (Koloss 2002: 90-91, cat. 63). Based on a comparison with this sculpture and the horizontal orientation of the wood grain, it appears that this sculpture is part of the drums, while other mbembe sculptures with a vertical grain appear to have been freestanding figures, possibly part of an architectural context.

Combined with natural erosion, the longitudinal orientation of the wood grain has produced a captivating feature of this mbembe sculpture: deep age-related cracks simultaneously follow the undulating grain and the vertical contours of the body. The natural forms work elegantly with the sculptor's design and guide the eye. The viewer's sculptures rise and fall in waves, as if suspended in space and time.

The Muensterberger figure likely depicts a warlord, who once held the severed head of a vanquished enemy in one hand and a weapon in the other. Later royal sculptures from the neighboring Cameroonian grasslands offer clues to this iconography; for example, the figure of King Bay Akiy from the Tishman Collection (National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., inv. no. "1984.AF.051.110 a-b").

Bassani (ibid: 212) concludes: "The artists' work and the workings of time and nature are difficult to distinguish, but that does not make the final result any less fascinating. Erosion and the deep veining give the impression of stone, a kind of geological layering in these utterly simple and monumental sculptures, which transcend the narrow cultural domain and embody something universal."