Pair of reliquaries from Ifé - Pair of reliquaries from Ifé - Yoruba - Benin (No reserve price)

Tête Ifè - Benin & Nigeria
Height: 29cm
Width: 14cm
Diameter: 39cm
Height on base: 31cm

TÊTE IFÈ - BENIN & NIGERIA
Height: 29.3 cm
Width: 13.8cm
Diameter: 37cm
Height on base: 32.3cm

Ifé (in Yoruba language Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient city-state founded by the ancestral Yoruba ethnicity, located in the southwest of present-day Nigeria near the border with Benin. It is renowned for its heads with elegant naturalism in bronze and terracotta, but especially for having given rise to an important and thriving civilization in sub-Saharan Africa between the 12th and 15th centuries.

Ife in West Africa. It brilliantly represents the beauty of a queen and the King of Ife. It depicts the strength of an Ife queen and suggests her subtlety when she compliments her king. The sculpted head is topped with a braided crown, finely detailed. A superbly crafted bronze piece and a beautiful work of art from Ife, paying homage to their magnificent queen and king.