SNK 1212-61

Dogon Door Lock, Mali

H: 37 cm (14,6″), W: 9,5/30 cm (3,7″/11,8″), D: 4,5 cm (1,8″)

Used to protect houses and granaries, Dogon door locks range from the abstract and symbolic representations of myths, ancestors and scenes of life. Placing an image of an ancestor on the door lock offered additional protection by making the door sacrosanct.

The masterful art of the Dogon is characterized by the rendering of the human body in an abstract way, reducing it to its essentials. Some are extremely elongated with emphasis on geometric forms.Their art deals with the myths whose complex ensemble regulates the life of the individual.

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.

Click here for more information about the Dogon people

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