A bronze sculpture - Edan - Ogoni - Nigeria (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.
Estimate € 280 - € 330
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Bronze sculpture titled 'A bronze sculpture' from Nigeria, an Ogoni Edan figure, 15 cm high, 330 g, in fair condition, original/official authenticity, sold with stand.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Female anthropomorphic figure, Edan Ògbóni/Òsùgbó, Yoruba
Origin: Abakaliki region, Igoni village, Nigeria
Furthermore, the best-documented Ogoni art forms consist primarily of wooden masks and sculptures, ancestral effigies, puppets, and objects used in masquerades. The morphology of the photographed object—a frontal male figure made of a copper alloy, with a loop at the top, a very elongated body, and sexualized anatomy—corresponds more closely to the Edan ritual figures of the Yoruba society known as Ògbóni or Òsùgbó. The identification proposed here remains, however, hypothetical as long as the object lacks a verifiable ancient provenance or a material analysis. Incl stand.
Description
The object appears as a small, strongly vertical anthropomorphic figure, now mounted on a modern metal rod and a black cubic base. The head, which is large in proportion to the body, is expressively modeled: the forehead and the top of the skull rise into an irregular mass ending in a large, perforated loop. The face features protruding or deeply set eyes, a prominent nose, an open mouth with thick lips, and a projecting chin. Around the neck is a ring-shaped ridge that could suggest a necklace, an ornament, or a stylistic convention. The short arms extend laterally from the shoulders before curving back toward the front. The forearms appear bent, and the hands—very rudimentary—seem to be clasped or held at chest level. The torso is transformed into a long, nearly cylindrical column, with no detailed indication of the ribcage, waist, or musculature. A small protrusion appears in the lower abdomen. The anatomical base is more complex: several curved and protruding forms seem to combine reduced legs with an accentuation of the male genitalia. This sexual emphasis is an important element supporting the hypothesis that this male figure was once part of a pair.
The surface is golden brown, dark in places, with green spots characteristic of copper corrosion products. Earthy deposits, irregularities, cavities, and more polished wear on certain reliefs give the object an ancient and frequently handled appearance. However, these characteristics alone do not constitute evidence for dating.
Historical-Artistic Analysis
The aesthetic relies less on anatomical imitation than on symbolic presence. The frontal orientation, the extreme elongation of the torso, the reduced limbs, and the monumentalization of the head produce a hieratic figure, conceived as a sign of authority rather than as an individual portrait. Denis Williams precisely describes the art of the Edan Ògbóni as conceptual, linear, conservative, and archetypal, oriented toward spiritual presence rather than naturalism. The sculpture under study exhibits several of these characteristics: an axial silhouette, shallow depth, explicit sexuality, an impersonal face, and a codified arm gesture. The pierced loop at the top of the head is a defining feature. In complete Edan sets, a male figure and a female figure are normally joined by a chain attached to their heads. Several museum specimens retain this binary structure or are identified as male and female fragments of pairs that are now separated. The loop on this piece may therefore have once held a chain that is now missing.
The figure appears to have been cast, likely using the lost-wax process, which has been practiced by West African metallurgists since ancient times. However, the term "bronze" remains a conventional designation here: only X-ray fluorescence analysis would allow for determining the proportions of copper, zinc, tin, and lead and for distinguishing bronze from brass or another copper alloy. An X-ray could also reveal an internal core, casting repairs, or the former presence of an iron rod. The visible patina does not allow for scientific dating of the piece, as corrosion may be natural, accelerated, or altered by treatments.
Ritual Function
The Ògbóni/Òsùgbó society traditionally brought together elders recognized for their maturity, integrity, and authority. It performed political, judicial, and religious functions and maintained a central relationship with Ilé, the Earth, conceived as a maternal power, the source of life, and the abode of the dead. The Edan served as an emblem of this institution and embodied its authority. The two figures, male and female, did not necessarily represent a married couple. Rather, they expressed opposing yet complementary principles—hardness and softness, strength and calm, masculine and feminine—united under the authority of the Earth. Brass or bronze evoked permanence and longevity, while the iron of the rods symbolized firmness and power. The emphasis on the sexual organs affirmed not so much individuality as the generative complementarity of the two principles. Carried, transported, or presented by members, the Edan figures could serve as signs of initiation, messengers of decisions, instruments of oaths, protection, or judgment. An Edan placed at a threshold symbolically barred passage; when stuck or placed in the ground, it invoked the authority of society and of the Earth itself. In certain forms of ritual communication, the male figure might announce an accusation or a serious decision, while the female figure signaled a favor, an appointment, or a favorable outcome. In this case, the absence of the complementary figure, the chain, and any context of collection prevents us from determining a precise use. The object could be an isolated element of an Edan pair, a fragment of an insignia, a ceremonial pendant, or a regional variant. Its function should therefore not be described as certain, but as likely linked to the ritual, judicial, and protective authority of the Ògbóni/Òsùgbó society.
Selected Bibliography
Adepegba, Cornelius Oyeleke. Yoruba Metal Sculpture. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1991.
Anderson, Martha G., and Philip M. Peek, eds. *Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta*. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2002.
Kpone-Tonwe, Sonpie, and Jill Salmons. "The Arts of the Ogoni." In *Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta*, 2002.
Lawal, Babatunde. "À Yà Gbó, À Yà Tó: New Perspectives on Edan Ògbóni." *African Arts*, vol. 28, no. 1, 1995, pp. 36–49 and 98–100.
Williams, Denis. "The Iconology of the Yoruba 'Edan Ogboni.'" *Africa: Journal of the International African Institute*, vol. 34, no. 2, 1964, pp. 139–166.
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. MAZ33152
Informant: Amadou Dogo
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
Female anthropomorphic figure, Edan Ògbóni/Òsùgbó, Yoruba
Origin: Abakaliki region, Igoni village, Nigeria
Furthermore, the best-documented Ogoni art forms consist primarily of wooden masks and sculptures, ancestral effigies, puppets, and objects used in masquerades. The morphology of the photographed object—a frontal male figure made of a copper alloy, with a loop at the top, a very elongated body, and sexualized anatomy—corresponds more closely to the Edan ritual figures of the Yoruba society known as Ògbóni or Òsùgbó. The identification proposed here remains, however, hypothetical as long as the object lacks a verifiable ancient provenance or a material analysis. Incl stand.
Description
The object appears as a small, strongly vertical anthropomorphic figure, now mounted on a modern metal rod and a black cubic base. The head, which is large in proportion to the body, is expressively modeled: the forehead and the top of the skull rise into an irregular mass ending in a large, perforated loop. The face features protruding or deeply set eyes, a prominent nose, an open mouth with thick lips, and a projecting chin. Around the neck is a ring-shaped ridge that could suggest a necklace, an ornament, or a stylistic convention. The short arms extend laterally from the shoulders before curving back toward the front. The forearms appear bent, and the hands—very rudimentary—seem to be clasped or held at chest level. The torso is transformed into a long, nearly cylindrical column, with no detailed indication of the ribcage, waist, or musculature. A small protrusion appears in the lower abdomen. The anatomical base is more complex: several curved and protruding forms seem to combine reduced legs with an accentuation of the male genitalia. This sexual emphasis is an important element supporting the hypothesis that this male figure was once part of a pair.
The surface is golden brown, dark in places, with green spots characteristic of copper corrosion products. Earthy deposits, irregularities, cavities, and more polished wear on certain reliefs give the object an ancient and frequently handled appearance. However, these characteristics alone do not constitute evidence for dating.
Historical-Artistic Analysis
The aesthetic relies less on anatomical imitation than on symbolic presence. The frontal orientation, the extreme elongation of the torso, the reduced limbs, and the monumentalization of the head produce a hieratic figure, conceived as a sign of authority rather than as an individual portrait. Denis Williams precisely describes the art of the Edan Ògbóni as conceptual, linear, conservative, and archetypal, oriented toward spiritual presence rather than naturalism. The sculpture under study exhibits several of these characteristics: an axial silhouette, shallow depth, explicit sexuality, an impersonal face, and a codified arm gesture. The pierced loop at the top of the head is a defining feature. In complete Edan sets, a male figure and a female figure are normally joined by a chain attached to their heads. Several museum specimens retain this binary structure or are identified as male and female fragments of pairs that are now separated. The loop on this piece may therefore have once held a chain that is now missing.
The figure appears to have been cast, likely using the lost-wax process, which has been practiced by West African metallurgists since ancient times. However, the term "bronze" remains a conventional designation here: only X-ray fluorescence analysis would allow for determining the proportions of copper, zinc, tin, and lead and for distinguishing bronze from brass or another copper alloy. An X-ray could also reveal an internal core, casting repairs, or the former presence of an iron rod. The visible patina does not allow for scientific dating of the piece, as corrosion may be natural, accelerated, or altered by treatments.
Ritual Function
The Ògbóni/Òsùgbó society traditionally brought together elders recognized for their maturity, integrity, and authority. It performed political, judicial, and religious functions and maintained a central relationship with Ilé, the Earth, conceived as a maternal power, the source of life, and the abode of the dead. The Edan served as an emblem of this institution and embodied its authority. The two figures, male and female, did not necessarily represent a married couple. Rather, they expressed opposing yet complementary principles—hardness and softness, strength and calm, masculine and feminine—united under the authority of the Earth. Brass or bronze evoked permanence and longevity, while the iron of the rods symbolized firmness and power. The emphasis on the sexual organs affirmed not so much individuality as the generative complementarity of the two principles. Carried, transported, or presented by members, the Edan figures could serve as signs of initiation, messengers of decisions, instruments of oaths, protection, or judgment. An Edan placed at a threshold symbolically barred passage; when stuck or placed in the ground, it invoked the authority of society and of the Earth itself. In certain forms of ritual communication, the male figure might announce an accusation or a serious decision, while the female figure signaled a favor, an appointment, or a favorable outcome. In this case, the absence of the complementary figure, the chain, and any context of collection prevents us from determining a precise use. The object could be an isolated element of an Edan pair, a fragment of an insignia, a ceremonial pendant, or a regional variant. Its function should therefore not be described as certain, but as likely linked to the ritual, judicial, and protective authority of the Ògbóni/Òsùgbó society.
Selected Bibliography
Adepegba, Cornelius Oyeleke. Yoruba Metal Sculpture. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1991.
Anderson, Martha G., and Philip M. Peek, eds. *Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta*. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2002.
Kpone-Tonwe, Sonpie, and Jill Salmons. "The Arts of the Ogoni." In *Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta*, 2002.
Lawal, Babatunde. "À Yà Gbó, À Yà Tó: New Perspectives on Edan Ògbóni." *African Arts*, vol. 28, no. 1, 1995, pp. 36–49 and 98–100.
Williams, Denis. "The Iconology of the Yoruba 'Edan Ogboni.'" *Africa: Journal of the International African Institute*, vol. 34, no. 2, 1964, pp. 139–166.
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. MAZ33152
Informant: Amadou Dogo
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
Indigenous object name
Edan
Ethnic group/ culture
Ogoni
Country of Origin
Nigeria
Material
Bronze
Sold with stand
Yes
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A bronze sculpture
Height
15 cm
Weight
330 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
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