A iron sculpture - Lobi - Burkina Faso (No reserve price)
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Selected by Dimitri André
Holds a postgraduate degree in African studies and 15 years experience in African art.
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An original Lobi iron sculpture of a chameleon from the Kampti region, Burkina Faso, made of black iron with reddish‑brown to orange patina, 7 cm high and about 150 g, in fair condition and sold without a stand.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Zoomorphic black iron figure depicting a chameleon, lobi
Origin: Kampti region, southwestern Burkina Faso
Material: Black iron, reddish-brown to orange in color, with darker areas, pitting, and corrosion scales.
Description
The object depicts a quadruped with a very elongated, strongly arched body, shaped like a flattened metal blade. Its overall silhouette is low, almost crawling, but it retains a sense of movement thanks to the four curved legs that slightly lift the body. The head, situated at the end of a long, tapered neck or snout, is narrow and flattened. A small circular motif incised or carved on each side appears to indicate the eye. The mouth is only roughly suggested at the tip of the snout. The back features a series of triangular or undulating protrusions forming a serrated crest. This ridge, combined with the upward-curving tail and the feet ending in bifid shapes resembling claws, makes it possible to identify a chameleon rather than a crocodile or a monitor lizard. The coiled tail and prehensile limbs are, in fact, essential characteristics of this animal, although they have been heavily stylized by the blacksmith. The sculpture emphasizes the side view. It is constructed around a long horizontal line running from the snout to the tail, interrupted by the undulations of the back. The forelimbs and hindlimbs are drawn toward the ground by narrow curves, creating several voids beneath the body that play a full part in the composition. The surface now has a reddish-brown to orange coloration, with darker areas, pitting, and corrosion scales. The term "black iron" therefore refers more to the traditional nature of the material than to its current appearance, which has been significantly altered by oxidation.
Historical, Artistic, and Technical Analysis
This figure reflects an aesthetic based on anatomical simplification. The artisan did not seek an exact zoological reproduction: he selected the elements that make the animal immediately recognizable—dorsal crest, arched body, long head, hooked feet, and curved tail. Volumes are replaced by lines, outlines, and empty spaces. The animal thus appears both material and graphic, like a drawing executed in iron. The central section appears to have been fashioned from a heated iron bar or plate that was stretched and flattened. The legs were likely forged separately or cut out and then bent while hot. Their junction with the body should be examined by X-ray to determine whether they are forged welds, riveted joints, or part of a single piece of metal. The existence of Lobi iron sculptures is confirmed by several museum collections, notably that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which houses figures attributed to the Lobi of Burkina Faso and dated to the 20th century. The object's taut, almost calligraphic silhouette differs from anthropomorphic wooden bateba, but it stems from the same desire to give visible presence to a power or entity that is normally invisible. In Lobi art, an object's value does not depend solely on its likeness or formal beauty: it also stems from its origin, the ritual prescription that determined its creation, and the relationships maintained with it. Studies by Piet Meyer and Daniela Bognolo show that Lobi ritual objects must be understood in terms of their spiritual identity, location, and use, and not merely as standalone sculptures. Significant corrosion alone does not allow for the dating of the work or prove its former ritual use. It may result from prolonged exposure to a humid environment, being left on the ground, outdoor exposure, or poor storage conditions. A conservative dating to the 20th century can be proposed based on stylistic comparison, but this should be verified through an examination of provenance, forging techniques, and corrosion products.
Ritual Function
In Lobi religious beliefs, thila are invisible powers capable of imposing rules, prohibitions, and obligations on humans. When an illness, an accident, or a series of misfortunes occurs, the diviner can identify the power involved and prescribe the creation of an altar or an object made of a specific material and in a specific form. These objects are not necessarily considered to be the deity itself; rather, they facilitate an organized relationship between humans, the sanctuary, and the invisible entity. In this context, the figure shown may have been placed on a domestic, clan-based, or diviner's or healer's altar. It may have represented an animal associated with a thil, served as a prescribed offering, or acted as a protective object. Iron, transformed by fire and the blacksmith's specialized craftsmanship, is particularly suited to functions of defense, fastening, and strength.
The identification with the chameleon reinforces the hypothesis of an apotropaic function. Michèle Cros's research in Lobi territory shows that this animal is perceived as an ambivalent being—feared for its ability to change color and render itself nearly invisible, yet also sought after as a protector. Children deemed vulnerable or at risk may, in particular, be given a chameleon-shaped amulet, ritually activated, so that they may symbolically go unnoticed by the forces likely to harm them. This large iron effigy could embody a similar logic on the scale of an altar: harnessing the chameleon's attributed abilities of adaptation, concealment, and vigilance. Its crawling posture may suggest a discreet yet attentive presence, while the lateral eyes recall the animal's ability to monitor multiple directions. However, without testimony from the original owner, the name of the thil, the context of its discovery, or analyzed sacrificial residues, it would be excessive to attribute a single function to it. Interpretations related to protection, healing, divination, and defense against malevolent forces must remain documented hypotheses.
Selected Bibliography
Bognolo, Daniela. Lobi. Milan, 5 Continents Éditions, 2007. A book devoted to the styles, religious functions, and regional contexts of Lobi statuary.
Cros, Michèle. "The Chameleon: An Untouchable Turned Exotic Pet," in Sergio Dalla Bernardina (ed.), From Beast to Non-Human: Perspectives and Controversies Surrounding the Animal Condition. Paris, Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2020.
Labouret, Henri. The Tribes of the Lobi Branch. Paris, Institute of Ethnology, 1931. An important historical source, to be used with caution due to its vocabulary and colonial context.
Meyer, Piet. Art and Religion of the Lobi. Zurich, Museum Rietberg, 1981, 184 pp. A seminal study of the relationship between sculpture, divination, altars, and spiritual powers.
Schneider, Klaus. Lobi Crafts and Material Culture in Burkina Faso. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, 409 pp. A study of Lobi techniques, crafts, and material culture
The publications mentioned serve for comparative art historical classification. They do not establish the specific cultural attribution, dating, or original use of the sculpture in question.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective copyright holders are reserved.
Inv. No. MAZ32835
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Zoomorphic black iron figure depicting a chameleon, lobi
Origin: Kampti region, southwestern Burkina Faso
Material: Black iron, reddish-brown to orange in color, with darker areas, pitting, and corrosion scales.
Description
The object depicts a quadruped with a very elongated, strongly arched body, shaped like a flattened metal blade. Its overall silhouette is low, almost crawling, but it retains a sense of movement thanks to the four curved legs that slightly lift the body. The head, situated at the end of a long, tapered neck or snout, is narrow and flattened. A small circular motif incised or carved on each side appears to indicate the eye. The mouth is only roughly suggested at the tip of the snout. The back features a series of triangular or undulating protrusions forming a serrated crest. This ridge, combined with the upward-curving tail and the feet ending in bifid shapes resembling claws, makes it possible to identify a chameleon rather than a crocodile or a monitor lizard. The coiled tail and prehensile limbs are, in fact, essential characteristics of this animal, although they have been heavily stylized by the blacksmith. The sculpture emphasizes the side view. It is constructed around a long horizontal line running from the snout to the tail, interrupted by the undulations of the back. The forelimbs and hindlimbs are drawn toward the ground by narrow curves, creating several voids beneath the body that play a full part in the composition. The surface now has a reddish-brown to orange coloration, with darker areas, pitting, and corrosion scales. The term "black iron" therefore refers more to the traditional nature of the material than to its current appearance, which has been significantly altered by oxidation.
Historical, Artistic, and Technical Analysis
This figure reflects an aesthetic based on anatomical simplification. The artisan did not seek an exact zoological reproduction: he selected the elements that make the animal immediately recognizable—dorsal crest, arched body, long head, hooked feet, and curved tail. Volumes are replaced by lines, outlines, and empty spaces. The animal thus appears both material and graphic, like a drawing executed in iron. The central section appears to have been fashioned from a heated iron bar or plate that was stretched and flattened. The legs were likely forged separately or cut out and then bent while hot. Their junction with the body should be examined by X-ray to determine whether they are forged welds, riveted joints, or part of a single piece of metal. The existence of Lobi iron sculptures is confirmed by several museum collections, notably that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which houses figures attributed to the Lobi of Burkina Faso and dated to the 20th century. The object's taut, almost calligraphic silhouette differs from anthropomorphic wooden bateba, but it stems from the same desire to give visible presence to a power or entity that is normally invisible. In Lobi art, an object's value does not depend solely on its likeness or formal beauty: it also stems from its origin, the ritual prescription that determined its creation, and the relationships maintained with it. Studies by Piet Meyer and Daniela Bognolo show that Lobi ritual objects must be understood in terms of their spiritual identity, location, and use, and not merely as standalone sculptures. Significant corrosion alone does not allow for the dating of the work or prove its former ritual use. It may result from prolonged exposure to a humid environment, being left on the ground, outdoor exposure, or poor storage conditions. A conservative dating to the 20th century can be proposed based on stylistic comparison, but this should be verified through an examination of provenance, forging techniques, and corrosion products.
Ritual Function
In Lobi religious beliefs, thila are invisible powers capable of imposing rules, prohibitions, and obligations on humans. When an illness, an accident, or a series of misfortunes occurs, the diviner can identify the power involved and prescribe the creation of an altar or an object made of a specific material and in a specific form. These objects are not necessarily considered to be the deity itself; rather, they facilitate an organized relationship between humans, the sanctuary, and the invisible entity. In this context, the figure shown may have been placed on a domestic, clan-based, or diviner's or healer's altar. It may have represented an animal associated with a thil, served as a prescribed offering, or acted as a protective object. Iron, transformed by fire and the blacksmith's specialized craftsmanship, is particularly suited to functions of defense, fastening, and strength.
The identification with the chameleon reinforces the hypothesis of an apotropaic function. Michèle Cros's research in Lobi territory shows that this animal is perceived as an ambivalent being—feared for its ability to change color and render itself nearly invisible, yet also sought after as a protector. Children deemed vulnerable or at risk may, in particular, be given a chameleon-shaped amulet, ritually activated, so that they may symbolically go unnoticed by the forces likely to harm them. This large iron effigy could embody a similar logic on the scale of an altar: harnessing the chameleon's attributed abilities of adaptation, concealment, and vigilance. Its crawling posture may suggest a discreet yet attentive presence, while the lateral eyes recall the animal's ability to monitor multiple directions. However, without testimony from the original owner, the name of the thil, the context of its discovery, or analyzed sacrificial residues, it would be excessive to attribute a single function to it. Interpretations related to protection, healing, divination, and defense against malevolent forces must remain documented hypotheses.
Selected Bibliography
Bognolo, Daniela. Lobi. Milan, 5 Continents Éditions, 2007. A book devoted to the styles, religious functions, and regional contexts of Lobi statuary.
Cros, Michèle. "The Chameleon: An Untouchable Turned Exotic Pet," in Sergio Dalla Bernardina (ed.), From Beast to Non-Human: Perspectives and Controversies Surrounding the Animal Condition. Paris, Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 2020.
Labouret, Henri. The Tribes of the Lobi Branch. Paris, Institute of Ethnology, 1931. An important historical source, to be used with caution due to its vocabulary and colonial context.
Meyer, Piet. Art and Religion of the Lobi. Zurich, Museum Rietberg, 1981, 184 pp. A seminal study of the relationship between sculpture, divination, altars, and spiritual powers.
Schneider, Klaus. Lobi Crafts and Material Culture in Burkina Faso. Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, 409 pp. A study of Lobi techniques, crafts, and material culture
The publications mentioned serve for comparative art historical classification. They do not establish the specific cultural attribution, dating, or original use of the sculpture in question.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective copyright holders are reserved.
Inv. No. MAZ32835
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Details
Ethnic group/ culture
Lobi
Country of Origin
Burkina Faso
Material
Black Iron
Sold with stand
No
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A iron sculpture
Height
7 cm
Weight
150 g
Authenticity
Original/official
Sold by
GermanyVerified
protop
Rechtliche Informationen des Verkäufers
- Unternehmen:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
- Repräsentant:
- Wolfgang Jaenicke
- Adresse:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
Klausenerplatz 7
14059 Berlin
GERMANY - Telefonnummer:
- +493033951033
- Email:
- w.jaenicke@jaenicke-njoya.com
- USt-IdNr.:
- DE241193499
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