A bronze sculpture - Vere - Nigeria (No reserve price)
04
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23
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€ 9
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Selected by Dimitri André
Holds a postgraduate degree in African studies and 15 years experience in African art.
Estimate € 450 - € 550
 | €9 | |
|---|---|---|
 | €8 | |
 | €7 | |
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Bronze sculpture titled 'A bronze sculpture' from Nigeria of the Vere culture, provenance Jimeta collection area, depicting two anthropomorphic figures; weight 900 g, height 17 cm, in fair condition and authentic as original/official, sold without a stand.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Vere Sculpture of Two Anthropomorphic Figures
Origin: Jimeta collection area, Nigeria
Material: Brown-black bronze with golden highlights, greenish patches, and earthy deposits.
Description
The figure on the left is male, as indicated by the depiction of the genitals. It stands facing forward on broad, flared feet; its legs are short, its arms arched, and its hands clenched. Its raised head has zoomorphic or hybrid features: large, lateral ears, bulging eyes, a protruding snout, and an appendage under the chin. It would, however, be unwise to identify the specific animal depicted. Rings encircle the neck, wrists, waist, and ankles, while spiral discs adorn the chest. The second figure appears to be female due to her breasts and the shape of her pelvis. She wears a conical hairstyle or headdress; her hemispherical eyes, triangular nose, protruding ears, and slightly parted mouth accentuate her expression. The arms wrap around the body and meet at the abdominal region. Spirals cover the neck, chest, abdomen, and legs: they may evoke jewelry, scarification, elements of clothing, or signs of rank, though no single interpretation can be definitively established. Both objects feature a brown-black patina, golden highlights, greenish patches, and earthy deposits.
Historical and Artistic Analysis
The Vere were renowned for their work in brass and other copper alloys. Their output included ornaments, bells, ceremonial hoes, daggers, initiation insignia, and human figures made of wood, clay, or metal. Recent research indicates, however, that anthropomorphic sculptures played a less central role among the Vere than among the neighboring Mumuye or Chamba. The corpus preserved today comes mainly from collections made in the early 20th century and then in the 1960s, when this metallurgical activity began to decline.
The two statuettes share the same aesthetic of frontal orientation, stability, and ornate decoration, but they are not strictly identical: rather, they form a visual complementarity. The first combines a male body with an animal-like head; the second emphasizes femininity, the hairstyle, and spiral motifs. The thick relief and the proliferation of spirals are reminiscent of Verre's relatively late works, which became heavier and more lavishly decorated as metal became more readily available. This comparison, however, is not sufficient to date the objects: an attribution to the mid- or second half of the 20th century remains hypothetical.
Scientifically Based Description
Lost-wax casting is the most likely manufacturing technique: a wax model was encased in a refractory mold, then the wax was removed and replaced with molten metal. This technique is historically documented among the Verre foundrymen, but its use on these two pieces has yet to be confirmed. An X-ray would reveal internal cores, porosity, and any welds or repairs. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis would measure the proportions of copper, zinc, tin, and lead to determine whether the metal is brass, bronze, or a mixed alloy. Microscopic examination would also help distinguish between the original patina, deposits resulting from use, restorations, and any artificial aging. Green corrosion merely indicates the presence of copper; it does not, on its own, constitute proof of age.
Ritual Function
It would be unwise to automatically identify these statuettes as an "ancestral" or marital "couple." Certain Verre figures, primarily made of wood, were carried by women or young people during public performances and rituals related to male initiation; a female figure, in particular, could symbolize the future wife of an initiate. However, this information cannot be mechanically applied to the metal figures. Copper alloys were more widely used in adornment, the display of wealth, initiations, and certain specialized cults. For this set, several functions therefore remain possible: objects of prestige, images of complementary genders, protective talismans, altar figures, ceremonial accessories, or works later paired together. Gender differentiation and the abundance of adornments may evoke fertility, marriage, or social complementarity, but no specific function can be asserted without field provenance, a vernacular name, and a collection narrative.
Selected Bibliography
Chappel, Tim, Richard Fardon, and Klaus Piepel. "Surviving Works: Context in Verre Arts." *Vestiges: Traces of Record*, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021.
Berns, Marla C., Richard Fardon, and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, eds. *Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley*. Los Angeles, Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2011.
Brincard, Marie-Thérèse, ed. The Art of Metal in Africa. New York, African-American Institute, 1982; notably Arnold Rubin, "Bronzes of Northeastern Nigeria."
Meek, C. K. *Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria*, vol. 2. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1931.
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. *Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province*. London: International African Institute/Oxford University Press, 1958.
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. MAZ32962
Informant: Amadou Dogo
Height: 17 cm / 16 cm
Weight: 470 g / 430 g
Sold without TL test.
Catawiki's experts perform a virtual review based on the information, photographs, provenance and supporting documentation provided during the submission process. Acceptance of a traditional or ancient African art object for auction does not constitute independent authentication or certification by Catawiki, nor does it mean that Catawiki's expert has physically or scientifically authenticated, patina-analyzed, or dated the object. Under our Terms and Traditional African Art Submission Guidelines, the seller remains responsible for the accuracy, legality, provenance and authenticity of the object and the information provided.
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
Vere Sculpture of Two Anthropomorphic Figures
Origin: Jimeta collection area, Nigeria
Material: Brown-black bronze with golden highlights, greenish patches, and earthy deposits.
Description
The figure on the left is male, as indicated by the depiction of the genitals. It stands facing forward on broad, flared feet; its legs are short, its arms arched, and its hands clenched. Its raised head has zoomorphic or hybrid features: large, lateral ears, bulging eyes, a protruding snout, and an appendage under the chin. It would, however, be unwise to identify the specific animal depicted. Rings encircle the neck, wrists, waist, and ankles, while spiral discs adorn the chest. The second figure appears to be female due to her breasts and the shape of her pelvis. She wears a conical hairstyle or headdress; her hemispherical eyes, triangular nose, protruding ears, and slightly parted mouth accentuate her expression. The arms wrap around the body and meet at the abdominal region. Spirals cover the neck, chest, abdomen, and legs: they may evoke jewelry, scarification, elements of clothing, or signs of rank, though no single interpretation can be definitively established. Both objects feature a brown-black patina, golden highlights, greenish patches, and earthy deposits.
Historical and Artistic Analysis
The Vere were renowned for their work in brass and other copper alloys. Their output included ornaments, bells, ceremonial hoes, daggers, initiation insignia, and human figures made of wood, clay, or metal. Recent research indicates, however, that anthropomorphic sculptures played a less central role among the Vere than among the neighboring Mumuye or Chamba. The corpus preserved today comes mainly from collections made in the early 20th century and then in the 1960s, when this metallurgical activity began to decline.
The two statuettes share the same aesthetic of frontal orientation, stability, and ornate decoration, but they are not strictly identical: rather, they form a visual complementarity. The first combines a male body with an animal-like head; the second emphasizes femininity, the hairstyle, and spiral motifs. The thick relief and the proliferation of spirals are reminiscent of Verre's relatively late works, which became heavier and more lavishly decorated as metal became more readily available. This comparison, however, is not sufficient to date the objects: an attribution to the mid- or second half of the 20th century remains hypothetical.
Scientifically Based Description
Lost-wax casting is the most likely manufacturing technique: a wax model was encased in a refractory mold, then the wax was removed and replaced with molten metal. This technique is historically documented among the Verre foundrymen, but its use on these two pieces has yet to be confirmed. An X-ray would reveal internal cores, porosity, and any welds or repairs. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis would measure the proportions of copper, zinc, tin, and lead to determine whether the metal is brass, bronze, or a mixed alloy. Microscopic examination would also help distinguish between the original patina, deposits resulting from use, restorations, and any artificial aging. Green corrosion merely indicates the presence of copper; it does not, on its own, constitute proof of age.
Ritual Function
It would be unwise to automatically identify these statuettes as an "ancestral" or marital "couple." Certain Verre figures, primarily made of wood, were carried by women or young people during public performances and rituals related to male initiation; a female figure, in particular, could symbolize the future wife of an initiate. However, this information cannot be mechanically applied to the metal figures. Copper alloys were more widely used in adornment, the display of wealth, initiations, and certain specialized cults. For this set, several functions therefore remain possible: objects of prestige, images of complementary genders, protective talismans, altar figures, ceremonial accessories, or works later paired together. Gender differentiation and the abundance of adornments may evoke fertility, marriage, or social complementarity, but no specific function can be asserted without field provenance, a vernacular name, and a collection narrative.
Selected Bibliography
Chappel, Tim, Richard Fardon, and Klaus Piepel. "Surviving Works: Context in Verre Arts." *Vestiges: Traces of Record*, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021.
Berns, Marla C., Richard Fardon, and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, eds. *Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley*. Los Angeles, Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2011.
Brincard, Marie-Thérèse, ed. The Art of Metal in Africa. New York, African-American Institute, 1982; notably Arnold Rubin, "Bronzes of Northeastern Nigeria."
Meek, C. K. *Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria*, vol. 2. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1931.
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. *Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province*. London: International African Institute/Oxford University Press, 1958.
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. MAZ32962
Informant: Amadou Dogo
Height: 17 cm / 16 cm
Weight: 470 g / 430 g
Sold without TL test.
Catawiki's experts perform a virtual review based on the information, photographs, provenance and supporting documentation provided during the submission process. Acceptance of a traditional or ancient African art object for auction does not constitute independent authentication or certification by Catawiki, nor does it mean that Catawiki's expert has physically or scientifically authenticated, patina-analyzed, or dated the object. Under our Terms and Traditional African Art Submission Guidelines, the seller remains responsible for the accuracy, legality, provenance and authenticity of the object and the information provided.
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
Vere
Country of Origin
Nigeria
Material
Bronze
Sold with stand
No
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A bronze sculpture
Height
17 cm
Weight
900 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
AGB
AGB des Verkäufers. Mit einem Gebot auf dieses Los akzeptieren Sie ebenfalls die AGB des Verkäufers.
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