Lot 47
PAIR OF WURKUN KUNDUL FIGURES
NIGERIA
Auction: 28 May 2026 from 13:00 BST
Description
carved wood, fibre binding and iron, each of strongly stylised form, with a cylindrical body and surmounted by a large head on an elongated neck with fibre binding, the facial features rendered in an abstract manner, both with surviving iron pins and rich patination, raised on bespoke wooden mounts with a French handwritten note to the underside of one which reads:
“Pair of sculptures from the Wurkun tribe of the Niger Delta. Normally they were mounted on iron rods planted in the ground to protect the crops. Sometimes also inside a hut in the middle of the village to ensure domestic tranquility. (See: ‘Three Rivers of Nigeria’ by Wittmer and Arnett.)”
Dimensions
48.6cm & 44.9cm tall
Provenance
Mr. J. Hale, south-west England, acquired on the French art market in the 1970s, thence by descent. The piece is accompanied by a copy of a receipt from the British Museum, dated 27th July 1980, when the items were deposited for identification.
Footnote
“Kundul figures served as part of Wurkun ritual practice in northern Nigeria. A healer would instruct clients to acquire a set from an artist as a component of treatment. The ritual expert then applied organic materials to empower the statues to aid the client’s well-being. The figures were then washed with a solution of brown or red clay and polished with oil from a local seed, producing the encrusted surfaces seen here. Objects like these may have been decorated around their long necks with palm frond fibers, the friction from the fibers smoothing the surface. A vertical head crest distinguishes the male from its female counterpart.”
Princeton University Art Museum, United States, 2015, for similar examples please see accession number 2015-6681 a-b.