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Great Fulani calabash 09.01.1697

Whenever a new camp is set up during their transhumance, the Fulani wife displays her gourd collection. A new bride's collection is often displayed, once she makes the final transition to the status of a married woman.

Northeastern Nigeria is a center of production for elaborately decorated gourds that are used as household storage containers and food and beverage bowls. Two decorative techniques were used on the exterior of this bowl. First, a band and triangular forms were carved near the rim of the bowl, so that the white inner layers contrast with the outer skin. Next, the lines and grid patterns were added by pyroengraving, which involves burning lines into the surface with a heated blade or cut with a cold knife and blackened with soot. The maker, a woman, used the entire surface for the design, centering the pattern on the bottom of the bowl.

The calabash is symbolically the woman's womb. A natural, organic object, directly created by God in the image of the original placenta that contained the graphic signs, it is "of life", and the signs that cover it have meaning. They command the "things" they mean, and the craftsman of the motifs, in their layout, does a work that recalls the divine work.

  • Ref.:09.01.1697
  • Size:Diameter 43 - 50 cm; height: 26 cm
  • Weight:990 gr

Category

  • Calabashes & Gourdes 09.01West-, Central- & North Africa 29.01
  • Containers & Household Items 09REGIONAL GALLERIES 29

Origin

  • West and Central Africa
  • NIGERIACAMEROON
  • Fulani

Material

  • VegetalGourds, calabashes

Quality

  • Museum quality (worthy to be added to a museum’s permanent collection)High aesthetic valueExcellent overall condition

770.00
CHF
$
Similar items