Concave, spade shaped head with top know, bulging eyes, small pointed nose, the face and openwork base with sheets and strips of copper, some with impressed patterning. On custom wood base. Kota reliquary figures are placed as guardians with their posts embedded in baskets containing bones and other ancestral relics, and traditionally housed together in a village shrine. Their various styles correspond to the area of Gabon in which they are made and used. Approx. 21" H. (including base.) Provenance: Estate of Thomas McNemar, (1931-2020.) McNemar lived and collected throughout Central and West Africa in the 1960s and 70s. He established galleries of African Art in New York and San Francisco, selling to museums and public and private collections in the United States and Europe.