Beaded Palm Wine Vessel Topped With Human Figure - Tribal Art
This impressive beaded wine vessel is decorated with red and black glass beads. It features a subdued base decorated with black beads. The main body of the vessel is decorated with a beautiful diamond pattern centred around four circles made from cowrie shells. The neck of the wine vessel is adorned with black beads that give way to dark red beads further to the top. The eye-catching stop of the vessel resembles a human face fashioned from cowrie shells and red, green, white and black beads.
Dimensions approx. 65 x 26 x 27 cm
Beaded art from the Cameroon Grasslands collected between 1985 and 2005. Rulers throughout the many Kingdoms in the Cameroon Grassland region (Bamileke –Bamum -Tikar) employed a range of Regalia to assert their political, economic and religious power. Presented publicly in lavish displays of wealth and power, many court objects were distinguished by their elaborate bead embroidery. Imported from Venice, Bohemia or Amsterdam, glass beads were considered a luxury material whose use and distribution were controlled by the King. The decoration of objects with vast quantities of brilliantly colored beads transformed utilitarian objects into symbols of royal status and prestige.
All lots are in the state the collector acquire them. No restorations or cleaning has been performed.
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