Lot 23
£4,500
African & Oceanic Art, Antiquities and Natural History
Auction: 5 May 2020 at 12:00 BST
carved wood, the backrest with a single figure, the panels flanking either side with angled squares and swirling motifs, each upright surmounted by a figure, one shown with the elbows resting on the knees and hands to the face, the other also seated and holding a container, the front stretcher with two birds shown pecking at the ground, the side and back stretchers with various allegorical scenes, the front marked with a Léopoldville Musée de la vie indigene inventory number in white ink "L.E.52.Ma"
Provenance:
Musée de la vie indigene, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, accession number L.E.52.Ma
Josef Mueller, Switzerland
Christie’s. 20th March 1979, Tribal Art: Collection of Josef Mueller, Part II, lot 154
Private collection, Brussels
Note:
"Over the course of numerous encounters with European traders as early as the seventeenth century, Chokwe chiefs appropriated the design of certain types of Western artifacts. The seats of office, or thrones, of Chokwe chiefs, with backs, leather-covered seats, and decorative brass tacks, are modeled upon European chairs. The decoration of the chair, however, remains distinctly Chokwe in style. The elaborate figurative scenes depicted on this and other seats of office are designed as symbolic microcosms of life and represent the breadth of a leader's concerns and responsibilities. The back uprights contain scenes from the spiritual aspect of life, including depictions of ancestors or chiefs." (Metropolitan Museum of Art).