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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 14, 2019 | Bonhams | New York | AFRICAN AND OCEANIC ART | 102 | $****** - ****** | Mangbetu Knife, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
other
23.2 cm (9.13 in)
Marc and Denyse Ginzberg Collection, New York
Lance and Roberta Entwistle, London and Paris
Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above in 1992
namambele
"The art of the northern savanna is associated with the sumptuous royal courts of the Mangbetu peoples. At its height, the second half of the nineteenth century, Mangbetu aristocrats surrounded themselves with a wide variety of finely crafted boxes, jars, stools, pipes, musical instruments and weapons. This distinctive tradition of anthropomorphic sculpture developed around 1900. Although such forms predate the colonial presence, European patrons greatly increased the demand for them.
Namambele knives such as this example were worn at the belt, on the right side and were considered a mark of distinction. They were the sole property of the Mangbetu ruling aristocracy. In this example, the head is surmounted by the characteristic fan-shaped coiffure which identifies it as the head of a woman." (Metropolitan Museum of Art, WEB, nd.)
In the exceptional namambele presented here, the woman wears a ruling-class headdress, her delicate face is highlighted with incised geometric scarification; fine, glossy honey-brown patina.
