LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 June African & Oceanic Art Auction #645  / 

48057

Senufo (Cote d'Ivoire)Staff for Champion Cul

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Ethnographic Start Price:8,000.00 USD Estimated At:16,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Senufo (Cote d'Ivoire)Staff for Champion Cul
<B>Senufo (Côte d'Ivoire)</B></I><BR>Staff for a Champion Cultivator<BR>Wood, metal, cowry shells, fiber, leather, trade beads, seed pod, pigment<BR>Height: 54 ½ inches Width: 2 ¾ inches Depth: 2 7/8 inches<BR><BR>The staff for a champion cultivator, of which this is an especially serene and elegant example, is one of the most interesting developments in Senufo incorporation of sculptural imagery into a key cultural complex. “The <I>tefalipitya</B></I> ('hoe work-girl') staff honors the champion cultivator, and by extension, the residential and kinship unit (katiolo) whose pride and prestige he upholds. The champion cultivator as culture hero is a theme celebrated by an entire complex of sculptures, praise poems, musical and dance arrangement, and funeral rituals … The sculptured figure always represents a pitya - a young unmarried woman at the peak of her physical beauty” (Anita J. Glaze in Susan Vogel, ed. <I>For Spirits and Kings. African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection.</B></I> New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981, pp.48-49). Other than some use wear, the staff is in excellent condition.<BR><BR>Provenance: B.C. Dentan Works of Art, San Francisco<BR><BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Requires 3rd Party Shipping (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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