**Originally Listed At $350**

West Africa, Burkina Faso, Lobi peoples, ca. early 20th century CE. A hand-carved wooden female figure with delineated legs, a bulging abdomen, pendulous breasts, and planar shoulders tracing down to sinuous arms. The elongated head boasts coffee-bean-shaped eyes flanking a tapering nose, puffy lips, a projecting chin, and horizontal, slit-form ears, all beneath a rounded pate. Given this figure's protective role, it was most likely placed on or around an altar as part of a group of various 'bateba' figures (literal translation of bateba phuwe is "normal/ordinary wooden carved figure"). The precise meaning of each figure's shape and posture is difficult to ascertain, since these carvings were created as the result of a seer's vision for an afflicted individual who was suffering a particular malady. Size: 2.75" W x 12.6" H (7 cm x 32 cm); 13.75" H (34.9 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania, USA collection; ex-private New York, New York, USA collection

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#144558

Repair to right foot with small chips and light adhesive residue along break lines. Loss to tip of left foot, minor abrasions to legs, body, and head, with several stable hairline fissures, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits and fine patina throughout.