SNK 1212-4

Ashanti Female Figure, Akan, Ghana

H: 30 cm (11,8″), W: 7 cm (2,8″)

This is an exceptionally beautiful and well-preserved Akan-Ashanti female figure with a shiny brown surface. Her straight and serious attitude with both hands placed on her stomach and the fine stylized loincloth testify a role in connection with her function as an ancestor figure placed on the family shrine.

Female representations are important in the Asante culture as the female ancestor or Queen-Mother is the center of familial and community life and the center of political life. Figures like this will receive offerings and gifts while on her shrine.

The quality of this figure clearly shows that it has belonged to a wealthy family, since a figure of this quality has been expensive to make (carved).

Age: Early 20th century

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.

Literature: Cole, Herbert M., Ross, Doran H. “The Arts of Ghana”, Los Angeles 1977

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