a superb funerary head - Achantis - Ghana (No reserve price)

Funerary head - Ashanti - Ghana
In Africa, pottery is almost always the work of women, sometimes professional or wives of smiths as in Sudan. The clay from the "womb of the earth," the work of this material by women thus carries a strong symbolism.

Ashanti funerary sculptures are one of the pillars of the rich cultural heritage of this people. Oral and written sources confirm the association of this practice with royalty, at least in the oldest times, before it became popular around the mid-19th century.

These heads are stylized representations of the deceased, modeled on commission after death.

They were intended to be placed on a platform protected by a thatched roof, on the deceased’s grave. The realized portrait ensures the presence and participation of the departed at his own funeral.

The artistic expression reproduces a face whose eyes are almost closed. Only a thin slit allows a tenuous link between the world of the living and that of the dead to filter through.

There are often traces of paint associated with the customary graphic incisions such as scarifications.

The Akan term, encompassing several subgroups, accommodates many stylistic variants living side by side.

The pots with a black hue generally come from the Ashanti, who give them this color by exposure to smoke or by applying a varnish.

In the case of fragments with a flat head like the one presented here, this would be a fragment of the "pots of the lineage" (Abusa Kuruwa). One can see, on page 97 of the book "Ghana of Yesterday and Today," a photo from the 19th century showing a heap of these pots, often very large, with 3 to 6 heads of this type around the upper rim, and a larger one on the lid.

The photo is not commented on but, according to other sources, these Abusa Kuruwa pots would serve as receptacles for the hair of the lineage’s deceased, apparently deposited in a heap away from the village and outside.