A pair of Prampram dolls

A pair of Prampram dolls collected in South Central Ghana. Signs of ritual use and age.

The sculpture, supported by an iron stand, standing straight, denied of feet. No traces of genitalia. Its elongated bust takes up more than half the size of the sculptures diameter, compared to the smaller legs. It has two incrusted holes on the top of the chest, suggesting its nipples. The arm hanging down alongside the torso, have no hands either. The thin cylindric neck carries an oval shaped head, simply carved with minimal traits. These small rounded carved holes are the same size and shape throughout the two sculptures, giving an astonished attitude. The mouth is in „awe“, the eyes are looking straight ahead.

Baba Sylla, once the dealer of Karl Heinz Krieg, Germany, who brought the first extremly rare PramPram sculptures to the West.

"A great discovery were the so called "Prampram" sculptures, which are stylistically related to the Northern part of the small tribes in Northern Ghana and Togo, in particular the Moba. In my interview Baba Sylla, Accra, Ghana, isn't speaking about a "tribe“, he named it "a great family", which seems to be incorrect under anthropological aspects, but it is a link to the fact, how small this "tribe" is or was in reality. May be this is the reason that these sculptures are unknown in literature. Only Karl-Heinz Krieg (short before his death) conducted unpublished researches with voice protocols close to the hut, where these sculptures were once part of a shrine. But a friend of him told me that Mr. Krieg had no possibility to access the hut."

Lit.: Dogbe, B.K. (1977). “The human form as a central theme in art” in Image (Journal of the College of Art), Interview with Baba Sylla, the well known Antique dealer in Accra, Ghana, who collected these sculptures the first time.

Fieldphoto, Karl Heinz Krieg, around 2010, in front of the house of Baba Sylla with his.

"A great discovery were the so called Prampram sculptures, which are stylistically related to the Northern part of the small tribes in Northern Ghana and Togo, in particular the Moba. In my interview Baba Sylla, Accra, Ghana, isn´t speaking about a "tribe“, he named it "a great family", which seems to be incorrect under anthropological aspects, but it is a link to the fact, how small this "tribe" is or was in reality. May be this is the reason that these sculptures are unknown in literature. Only Karl-Heinz Krieg (short before his death) conducted unpublished researches with voice protocols close to the hut, where these sculptures were once part of a shrine. But a friend of him told me that Mr. Krieg had no possibility to access the hut."

Lit.: Dogbe, B.K., The human form as a central theme in art. In: Image (Journal of the College of Art), Kumasi 1977; Wolfgang Jaenicke, Neue Prampram Figuren entdeckt. Wolfgang Jaenicke, Interview with Baba Sylla, the well known Antique dealer in Accra, Ghana.

Height: 61 cm / 76 cm
Weight: 1,7 kg / 2,3 kg (incl. stands)