Ashanti doll, Kumasi region, Ghana. This wooden sculpture is a famous Akua'ba (or Akuaba) fertility doll from the Ashanti (Asante) culture. This highly stylized ritual object embodies the community’s ideal of beauty and fertility. The iconic disc-shaped head resembles a large, flat disc; the head is represented by a large, perfectly circular, flattened disc—the ultimate symbol of beauty among the Ashanti. The forehead is deliberately very high and prominent. The stylized facial features include eyebrows that form a continuous raised line curving inward at the center to create a long, straight, and very slender nose. The eyes are depicted as half-closed almonds. The mouth, meanwhile, is minuscule, placed at the very bottom of the disc. The upper and rear portions of the cranial disc are richly decorated with fine geometric incisions. One can distinguish grid-like braided patterns and parallel hatching representing a neat hairstyle. The head rests on a cylindrical neck carved with a series of folds or regular horizontal rings. In Ashanti culture, a ringed neck is a sign of health, prosperity, and physical beauty. The torso is extremely simplified. The arms are reduced to two conical, horizontal appendages extending perpendicularly from either side of the body, without detailed hands or fingers. The body forms a smooth, cylindrical trunk. The chest features two small, discreet conical breasts, and the navel is represented by a small circular protrusion in relief. Just above the navel, a semicircular frieze engraved with small rectangles adds an ornamental detail. The statuette has no legs. The lower part of the body widens to form a flat, massive cylindrical base that ensures the object’s balance and vertical stability. Carved from a single block of dark monoxyl wood, the doll has a very dark, almost black patina from use. The surface has a satin-like appearance in places due to handling, revealing a few chips and areas of orange-brown wear that reveal the natural color of the underlying wood (particularly on the base and the top of the disc). "Disk-headed akuaba figures remain one of the most recognizable forms in African art. Akua ba are used in a variety of contexts; primarily, however, they are consecrated by priests and carried by women who hope to conceive a child. The flat, disklike head is a strongly exaggerated convention of the Akan ideal of beauty: a high, oval forehead, slightly flattened in actual practice by gentle modeling of an infant's soft cranial bones. The flattened shape of the sculpture also serves a practical purpose, since women carry the figures against their backs wrapped in their skirt, evoking the manner that infants are carried. The rings on the figure's neck are a standard convention for rolls of fat, a sign of beauty, health, and prosperity in Akan culture. The delicate mouth of the figure is small and set low on the face. The small scars just discernible below the eyes of this figure refer to a local medical practice as protection against convulsions. Most akua ba have abstracted horizontal arms and a cylindrical torso with simple indications of the breasts and navel; the torso ends in a base as opposed to human legs. The style of this sculpture is rare among other extant examples of akua ba due to its miniaturized naturalistic body, arms, and legs. Full-bodied figures such as this are believed to be a recent twentieth-century innovation within the akua ba sculptural tradition...etc, etc" Source MET Museum, NY Literature (selection) Akua'ba: Asante Fertility Dolls, Gainesville 1998. Cole, Herbert M.; Ross, Doran H.: The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles 1977. Garrard, Timothy F.: Akan Weights and the Gold Trade. London 1980. Ross, Doran H.: Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. UCLA 1998. Weller, Malcolm P.: “Ashanti fertility dolls (Akua’ba)”, in: The British Journal of Psychiatry (2012). Sieber, Roy; Herreman, Frank: Hair in African Art and Culture. New York 2000. The Golden Stool: Regalia of the Asantehene, New York 1987. Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa, Washington D.C. 1989. L'Art Africain, Paris 1988. Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, New York 1991. Some of the information is generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Informant: Ouro M*A*Z*1*5*4*3*3* The seller guarantees and can prove that the object was obtained legally. The seller was informed by Catawiki that they had to provide the documentation required by the laws and regulations in their country of residence. The seller guarantees and is entitled to sell/export this object. The seller will provide all provenance information known about the object to the buyer. The seller ensures that any necessary permits are/will be arranged. The seller will inform the buyer immediately about any delays in obtaining such permits.