Blade with Handle

African

  • Titles Blade with Handle (Descriptive)
  • Medium iron
  • Dimensions 7 5/8 x 1 1/8 x 3/4 in. (19.4 x 2.9 x 1.9 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Mortimer B. and Sue Fuller, 2006.109
  • Work Type blade
  • Classification Furnishings and Equipment

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Figurative vessel has curved arms with hands resting on abdomen just below breasts; head has modeled features and plaited hair. Slightly flared opening to vessel rises from top of head.
Figurative Vessel, Igbo people, Anambra State, Nigeria, African, fired clay and encrustation
Vessel cover dedicated to the river god, Erinle. Such vessels were used to hold "moving water" from rivers or the sea, but not from wells, Every sixteen days the water is renewed together with two stones taken from a river as symbols of Erinle. The stones are also considered analogous to embryos in the womb. Surmounted by a male figure with his arms around a bowl on a potstand, a salamander or other river animal is behind him, and ritual implements surround him.
Wide jar with slightly flaring, narrow neck; dark brown surface. Shoulder has pattern of parallel horizontal lines.