A Baule wedding port

A Baule wedding port, high aged and extremely thin-walled, at the bottom two knives beneath a panther, the symbol of royal origin, in the middle a couple seated on stools, framed by bracelets, the signs of marriage, and a whip, which is in the Baule traditionan a sign of male power. There are many copies and replacements of this famous and highly symbolic object of Baule Art, but old exemplars, probably from the first part of the 20th century are extremely rare. The age is determined by a dense heavy "Lenke" wood carved on two thin plates connected by metal brackets and the origin of a royal family of the central Bouaké region. stand extra on request.

Carved door: Wood: 108 cm. Private collection, France. Carved doors had largely disappeared from Baule villages by the 1960s. Some like this one, were completely visible on the outside of houses. Others were for interior rooms and were seldom seen by anyone outside the family. The theme seen here, of one species preying upon another, is a common motif and refers to the pecking order in human society. This is a fine example of balanced asymmetry. Source: Susan M. Vogel African Art Western Eyes, 1999, Yale University, page 99; s. last photo.

Dimension: 155 x 62 x 1,2 cm
Weight: 10,9 kg