Additional information
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Mende Maternity Figure
This sweet, medium-sized figure is listed with the African Heritage Documentation and Research Centre (#0112663). Its listed provenance is Loed van Bussel (1935-2018), The Hague, The Netherlands, 1960s. It was sold by an anonymous seller at Sotheby’s London, “Tribal Art”, Lot 224 with an estimate of £2,000-3,000 and sold for £1,540 in June 1984. The buyer was a Long Island collector who owned it for the remainder of his life.
Mende maternity figures are scarce. The AHDRC database lists only fifteen examples; for comparison, the same database lists a little over 500 Mende female figures and a whopping 1,890 Baule female statues. Of course, not all extant, culturally authentic, and relevant works have AHDRC listings, but the relative numbers tell us something about what’s out there.
Mende statuary served various purposes: they were employed in divination ceremonies aimed at treating physical, social, and psychological troubles, and were also used in initiation instruction and rites of passage. According to the Yale Art Museum website, Mende figures “stood beside and protected the medicines in a society house, where they remained unseen by the public except when they were brought out on special occasions.”
17.5″ with base
