Yoruba cupbearer - Nigeria

Light wood, in very good condition, no restoration needed.
From a private collection.

Among the Yoruba, it seems that the cup is the receptacle for kola nuts, which are presented as a gesture of peace and welcome, as well as for communication with invisible forces.

The cup bearer represents an intermediary, a medium bringing forth the forces from elsewhere into our life.

Linked to royalty, the cup bearer represents one of the essential symbols of the transmission of sacred political power.

Thus, for a time the cup becomes the matrix of the universe, a privileged place where ancestral spirits may manifest themselves.