Storage Vessel

Bamana people, Mali, African

20th century

  • Titles Storage Vessel (Descriptive)
  • Artist Bamana people, Mali
  • Medium fired clay and slip
  • Dimensions 22 3/4 x 13 in. Diam. (57.8 x 33 cm)
  • Credit Line Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; Dick Jemison Collection of African Pottery, AFI.235.2012
  • Work Type vessel
  • Classification Containers

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Staff for priest of Shango (oshe Shango), Yoruba people, Nigeria, African, carved wood, powdered camwood, metal
Headdress of burlap and animal hide, front beaded with red, blue, white, and green glass beads in lozenge and triangle patterns. Five cowrie shells and four wooden peg beads attached on top of surface of glass beads. Wooden pegs, joined in pairs, cover small lozenges of green glass beads. White, brown, black, and blue feathers cover top, sides and back of headdress in spherical shape (slightly flattened in back). Five short wooden dowels attached to back, arranged two, one, two.
Collector number EWLE 9
Helmet mask composed of long plank, heavy, hemispherical brow ridge, and tall, vertical, jointed horns. Small square eyes just below brow ridge on either side of the nose are pierced through the plank. Plank divided vertically by raised ridge extending from nose to raised umbilicus, located in bottom third of mask. No mouth is evident. Mask bears traces of symmetrical geometric patterns in red, black and white pigments. A sacred mask owned and worn solely by blacksmiths among the Bobo people; associated with the cult of Dwo.