Mask - Gabon (No reserve price)

Statue Ambete, Mbete

The variety of reliquaries in the African art of the Mbede, Mbete, or Ambete: the ancestor cult among the Mbete is accompanied by these statues whose dorsal cavity serves as a reliquary. In this example, a magical charge, composed of fledgling feathers, nails, and vegetal elements, has also been introduced. The flat face presents a characteristic expression, with cowries evoking narrow half-closed eyelids, a hollowed mouth in which sticks evoke the teeth, giving a grimacing look. The hairstyle is organized in braids gathered into rosettes and forming a horizontal crenellation. Beside the tubular torso, the arms are folded at a right angle. A wicker bark links the muscular legs, whose bend announces a ritual dance. The statue is adorned with necklaces of cordlets, clay beads and dried seeds, and a raffia loincloth. The crusty patina shows flaking.

The Mbete form a people of Gabon, at the border of Moyen-Congo, neighboring the Obamba, whose history has been marked by a long-running conflict against the Teke. They do not have a centralized political organization, practice ancestor worship, and use statues in place of reliquary boxes.