Lot 35
BAULE DOOR
CÔTE D'IVOIRE
African & Oceanic Art and Antiquities
Auction: 27 November 2018 at 11:00 GMT
Description
carved wood and pigment, the rectangular door with an integral post at the top right corner, with a depiction of a large fish catching a smaller one in its mouth
Dimensions
117cm high
Footnote
Provenance:
Pierre and Claude Vérité, Paris
Private collection, London
Exhibited:
Paris, Cercle Volney, Les arts Africains, 3rd June - 7th July 1955
Sochaux, Maison des Arts et Loisirs de Sochaux, Antilopes Chi-Wara et Portes de sanctuaires Africains, May 1983
Published:
Les arts africains, Paris, 1955, pg. 49, n° 126
Antilopes Chi-Wara et Portes de sanctuaires Africains, Sochaux, 1983, n° 3
Cf. Walker, R.A., 2009. The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art. Pg. 224, n° 78
Note:
Commenting on the similar door cited above at the Dallas Museum of Art featuring this exact motif, Walker comments:
"Baule sculptors carved doors that may have been seen by passers-by or that may have been seen by family members only. Whether entrances to house or to interior rooms, the doors were decorated with secular imagery. The motif of a big fish devouring a smaller fish - a commentary on protecting rather than preying on ones own - adorned a number of doors and may have been carved by the same sculptor or atelier.
…
Because sacred sculptures were rarely viewed by the public, Baule sculptors used utilitarian objects, such as doors, heddle pulley for looms and ointment jars rather than sacred sculptures, to advertise their abilities and attract commissions."