Bamana Iron Figure
A slender Bamana iron figure is traditionally placed next to the altar.
Tribe: Bamana
Origin: Mali
Approx Age: Early 20th Century
Materials: Iron
Dimensions cm: 13 (tall)
Ref. Number: 1323
SOLD
Description:
This Bamana Iron figure presents prominent facial features, a long lower body with the absents of legs but is represented in a twisted coil. One arm wrapped around the body with the other folded back on itself. Nice patina due to this figure having been libated.
Provenance: Ex Lampevelden Collection Netherlands.
History
A very aged iron piece, was collected by a Dutch collector in the 1970s who was working in Bamana and Dogon villages fitting irrigation systems for them.
Iron figures exhibit the technical skill and artistry that the blacksmith brought to their work. They would do the smelting to get the iron from iron ore, then heat and hammer out both the tools and weapons used and the important ritual objects/figures. Nowadays, the blacksmiths forge mainly scrap metal recuperated from old railway lines or car wrecks. So, little by little, the long process of iron ore reduction, which demands a perfect knowledge of fire and its temperatures, has been abandoned.
Each of these figures presents the skill of the blacksmith as can be seen from the careful shaping of the individual shaping of limbs and facial features. The small figures are normally placed upright near an alter.
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