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Description:
This ivory sceptre is highly carved and depicts a seated male figure eating a root and holding a sheathed knife or sceptre. A snake is entwined round the base of the staff which clasps a lizard-like object in its teeth. The container which surmounts the sceptre was used to contain medicine, and a fragment of conus shell survives intact and may have originated from the Indian Ocean.
Source: Helen Coleman
Relational references:
Baequart, Jean-Baptise. The tribal Arts of Africa. Thames and Hudson, 1998. Farris Thompson, (in) Perspectives: Angles on African Art, Centre for African Art, 1987. Heron Dickinson, John, (ed.) African Art at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. Ross, Doran H., Elephant. The Animal and its Ivory in African Culture, University of California, 1992. Verswijner, G. & Palmenaer, E. (eds.) Treasures from the Africa-Museum Tervuren, Tervuren, 1995.| Object details | |
|---|---|
| Type of object: | Sceptre |
| Type category: | Costume and jewellery |
| Material: | |
| Width: | 53 mm |
| Height: | 298 mm |
| Depth: | 85 mm |
| Origin | |
| Style/Period: | Helen Coleman |
| Date range: | 1900-1999 CE |
| Discovery site: | Helen Coleman |
| Environment: | |
| Creator | |
| Technique: | |
| Personal name: | - |
| Role: | - |
| Culture: | Yombe |
| Record data | |
| Artworld id: | 10099 |
| Current accession number: | UEA 568 |
| Former accession number: | - |
| Credit line: | Sceptre with male figure eating a root. Africa, Congo (Kinshasha): Bakongo. 20th century. Elephant ivory. h. 29.8 cm. Acquired 1974. UEA 568 |
| Recorded by: | PC |
| Record date: | Sun, 2nd Jun 2002 |
| Copyright: | Copyright© by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA, Norwich, 2002. All Rights reserved |