FANG-BETI FEMALE RELIQUARY FIGURE
Southern Cameroon
45 cm. high
The present figure is one of a group of four, two male and two female, offered for sale in W.D. Webster's catalogue no.22 of 1899. The other female was acquired by Lt. Gen. Pitt Rivers and was sold by Sotheby's London on 15 July 1975 as lot 237.
Louis Perrois, writting about a Cameroon Fang figure offered for sale at Sotheby's New York, on 17 May 2002, as lot 138, cites the Webster group of figures, which he attributes to the Beti. He states that they are very old and notes their distinct dry patina. For two other figures of similar style see Sotheby's London, 15 July 1975, lot 236, for a male acquired by Lt Gen. A.H.L.F. Pitt Rivers from W.D. Webster in 1897; and Zwernemann, J. and Lohse, W., "Aus Afrika, Ahnen-Geister Götter", Hamburg, 1985, p.149, fig.142, for a female figure donated to the Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde in 1879.
The back of the head of the present figure is inscribed in red paint: "55 Ashanti W.Africa" though to which collection or institution this relates we do not know.
Provenienz
W.D. Webster, Bicester, Oxfordshire, no.7395, 1899
Literaturhinweise
Webester, W.D., "Illustrated Catalogue of Ehtnological Specimens, European and Eastern Arms and Armour, Prehistoric and Other Curiosities", 1899, vol.3, No.22, fig.50.