A male Fang Ntumu sculpture

An outstanding extremly old, male Fang Ntumu sculpture, verified by a C 14 test from Ciram Laboratory, France, a typical work in the style of the Fang-Ntumu people of northern Gabon; standing on wedge-shaped feet, slightly bent legs with unoroportional shortened thigs, the mass of the thighs, butocks and the powerfully curved calvess, prominent buttocks and the head with a rounded forehead, crowned by a crested, three parted coiffure (nlo-o-ngo)., the shoulders are straight with the spherical joints characteristic of Fang Ntumu, which lead into right-angled arms and end in folded hands, a frog-like mouth protruding below a finely worked nose, which is framed by metal button eyes. The black "iron-wood" is extremely dense and heavy,

With a probability of 26.3%, the age of this figure is verified as 1690 - 1730 using the C14 method if certain impurities are taken into account. With a probability of 94.4%, the age of this figure is likely to be between 1810 and 1925, which gives an average age of at least 140 years, but the figure is probably considerably older. The figure comes from the estate of Al Hadji Ibrahim, an art dealer who was once well-known in New York and Paris, whose estate is administered by a community of heirs., damage at the right foot, partly missing, the unprofessional plinth is also defect.

Fang/Ntumu reliquary figure, North of Gabon

The Swiss contemporary art gallery owner Felix Buchmann (1943-2008) and his wife Elena dedicated their personal collection to the representation of the human body, putting into perspective pieces by modern and contemporary artists and those of talented traditional sculptors from Africa. Each object in this catalogue (see also lots 51, 106 and 107) attests to the assured vision of these collectors and to the careful search for the individuality of the artist amongst the great archetypes of African sculpture. In the catalogue which accompanies the 2009 Culture myth Africa exhibition, Lorenz Homberger notes: "In the collection which, with great aesthetic sensibility, Felix and Elena Buchmann have carefully assembled over the years one finds only masterpieces of utterly fascinating quality."  (Homberger in Buchmann, 2009, p.11) Perrois, Byéri Fang. Sculptures d'ancêtres en Afrique, 1992,

Height: 60 cm
Weight: 3,7 kg