20th C. African Wood Figure Spirit Wife / Dream Lover
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Description
**Originally Listed At $600**
Western Africa, Ivory Coast, Baule peoples, ca. early to mid-20th century CE. A hand-carved wooden figure known as a 'Blolo Bla,' a spirit wife or "dream lover" who visits the living in their dreams to serve as an oracle who can predict the future. The figure stands nude atop a hemispherical plinth and holds both arms tightly against her waist and beneath pendulous breasts and plateaued shoulders. Her puffy face bears petite eyes, a slender nose, and a smiling mouth, all beneath a finely incised coiffure with a protruding top knot. The figure is covered in dark brown pigment, and the plinth is covered in yellow pigment. Size: 2.625" W x 9.875" H (6.7 cm x 25.1 cm); 10.1" H (25.7 cm) on included custom stand.
Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection; ex-Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#157575
Western Africa, Ivory Coast, Baule peoples, ca. early to mid-20th century CE. A hand-carved wooden figure known as a 'Blolo Bla,' a spirit wife or "dream lover" who visits the living in their dreams to serve as an oracle who can predict the future. The figure stands nude atop a hemispherical plinth and holds both arms tightly against her waist and beneath pendulous breasts and plateaued shoulders. Her puffy face bears petite eyes, a slender nose, and a smiling mouth, all beneath a finely incised coiffure with a protruding top knot. The figure is covered in dark brown pigment, and the plinth is covered in yellow pigment. Size: 2.625" W x 9.875" H (6.7 cm x 25.1 cm); 10.1" H (25.7 cm) on included custom stand.
Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection; ex-Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
#157575
Condition
Chips to plinth, limbs, and back of coiffure, with fading to pigment, light encrustations, and some light abrasions, otherwise intact and very good. Nice remains of pigment throughout.
Buyer's Premium
- 26.5%
20th C. African Wood Figure Spirit Wife / Dream Lover
Estimate $300 - $450
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Item located in Louisville, CO, usOffers In-House Shipping
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