Calabar - Nigeria (No reserve price)

Calabar neckrests from Nigeria

A small terracotta neckrest carved with geometric motifs. The wide circular opening, surmounted by small holes, evokes a face. These terracottas are finely incised with surface motifs reminiscent of Kuba textile designs.

The Qua, who inhabited the Calabar River area in the Cross River region in southeast Nigeria between the 10th and 11th centuries, are among the little-known peoples of the ancient African cultures that are now extinct. Terracotta neckrests are very rare in Africa, but are very common among the ceramics unearthed from the Qua Calabar people. The earliest Qua ceramics were found in excavations in the Calabar region carried out for road construction. These ceramics strike us with the richness and abstraction of their forms as well as with their colors and patinas.