SNK 1212-81

Yoruba Female Figure with Bowl and Baby on the Back, Yoruba, Nigeria

H: 40,5 cm (15,9″), W: 17 cm (6,7″)

Age: Early to mid 20th century.

Such images of the female represent a manifestation of Yoruba ideals of beauty and the gods’ power to bequeath fertility. The carver has carefully executed the figure’s composition to conform to Yoruba traditions as well as to achieve a great sense of equilibrium.
The Yoruba people, numbering over 20 million, are one of the largest nations in Africa with an art-producing tradition. Most of them live in southwest Nigeria, with considerable communities further west in the Republic of Benin and in Togo.

Provenance: Private Danish collection. It was either acquired directly from Lau (Laurence) Sunde’s collection in Copenhagen, which dates back to the 1940s, or Lau (Laurence) Sunde was an adviser to the collector.
Sunde had a “Etnografica” boutique in 1948, that became recognized among collectors as the most specialized boutique of its kind at the time. Tribal and oriental artefacts were purchased from private collectors as well as at auctions in Paris, Amsterdam and London, among other places.

Full description of Lau (Laurence) Sunde will be forwarded by request.

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