Primitive Art - Fine African Art - African Antiques

Carefully hand selected for the best quality, and beautifully presented on museum style display stands, they are ready for display.
PRICE: $449.99

Part of the Akan group, the Akye number about 55,000. Standing and seated statues with bulbous arms and legs produced by the Akye show strong Baule influence, but they are very marked by their distinctive style.
PRICE: $424.99

These Ambete statues are thought to have a connection with the ancestor’s cult – they were either used as reliquaries or placed alongside ancestor bones in a basket. Heads and busts were probably positioned on poles and placed in front of the chief’s house. They may have had an apotropaic and emblematic purpose. Instead, statues are provided with a dorsal, rectangular cavity, or the body itself may be in the shape of a reliquary chest. In this case, generally the head alone is sculpted in the round, the arms and lower extremities only roughly carved out.
PRICE: $184.99

After blackened ancestral stools of deceased royals, the most important material symbols of statecraft are swords. Like stools, these swords predate the Asante Confederacy, even if wealthy Asante kingdoms appear to have the most visually and symbolically elaborate examples. Also, like stools, swords originated as practical devices, then passed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through a period of aggrandizement, taking on various non-practical yet even more valuable ideological and ritual roles.
PRICE: $274.99

Used as an agricultural tool or would sometimes be held on the shoulder as a prestigious object by dignitaries, priests and farmers during special events to show their rank.
PRICE: $119.99

The Kota actually comprise of a number of groups of people who have common cultural traits. The Kota have subgroups such as the Shamaye, Hongwe, Obamba, Mindumu and Shake who all stayed together through the migrations faced over the past few centuries. The normally live in villages that comprise of two or more clans. The clans are made up of several lineages or family groups that trace their lineage from a common ancestor.
PRICE: $454.99

The term tyiwara or Chi wara (westernized form) denotes a cult, divine power and a farming association at one and the same time. The cult reveals the presence of a healing power, supervising farming activities, which appears in the form os a pair of masked dancers. The festivities celebrate the manifestation in the world of men of the mythical animal which taught them how to farm. This animal does not correspond to any known species of nature' but rather is a compostite creature made up of the features of several species that include various antelopes, anteaters, pangolins, guinea fowl and cameleons.
PRICE: $249.99

This headdress represents the comparatively more abstract type of Chi Wara mask, which is found primarily in the Ouassoulou region of the southwestern Bamana area. It shows a typical combination of three different species of animal - the aardvark, the pangolin, and the roan antelope. The base of the headdress is formed by a representation of the aardvark, (timba). The structure on the aardvarks back, a nearly closed oval, represents the pangolin (n'koso kasa) in the rolled-up position it assumes in defense and to protect its young. This stylized figure is surmounted by vertical elements and by the horns and long pointy ears of the antelope (dega).
PRICE: $374.99

While Bamileke masks and masqueraders may appear in royal festivals, they are normally associated with various men's societies, most of which are ultimately linked to the palace and the King. The societies are closed to outsiders, and only those who have the authrization to partake in the various activities may do so. Each society has its own special house, its own masks, costumes, dances and a secret language, and acting on behalf of the king to establish order and to preserve social and religious structures of the kingdom.
PRICE: $419.99

The Bamun live in the South-Eastern region of the Cameroon grasslands, numbering around a 100,000. They migrated to where they now live from an area to the north over the last few centuries. The region where they live played an integral part in the trade routes of Cameroon, with the port of Douala in the south and the Fulani and Hausa traders to the north.
PRICE: $89.99

This Baule sculpture represents a "blolo bian" or spirit husband (blolo bla being spirit wife). In Baule culture, the otherworld, (known to them as blolo), exists in contrast to the world of physical reality, existing in parallel to the lived world and is considered to be the world of the dead. Though, it must be noted that the blolo is more than a place for the 'departed', it is also a place of origin for the spirits of the newborn.
PRICE: $569.99

This Baule sculpture represents a "blolo bian" or spirit husband (blolo bla being spirit wife). In Baule culture, the otherworld, (known to them as blolo), exists in contrast to the world of physical reality, existing in parallel to the lived world and is considered to be the world of the dead. Though, it must be noted that the blolo is more than a place for the 'departed', it is also a place of origin for the spirits of the newborn.
PRICE: $239.99

The Baule Goli festivities date back to around 1900 and are held to celebrate new crops, the visits of dignitaries or periods of mourning. This is one of three types of masks used in these ceremony.
PRICE: $159.99

These narrow strip looms were used by the weavers of the Baule people (Ivory Coast) in the textile production.
PRICE: $179.99

Classically carved figures such as this mother and child among the Baule are known generally as waka sran, meaning a 'person of wood'. Some maternity sculptures were owned by diviners known as Komien, who could tell the future, cure illnesses as well as solving local community problems.
PRICE: $464.99

A portrait mask, signifying a beautiful woman, these masks were danced for entertainment. included on this mask are the scarifications on the cheeks that once typified the Baule (baule ngole) but no longer exist. Following independence, the government proscribed them in order to eliminate signs of ethnicity and bring all Ivoirians into a single people.
PRICE: $214.99

Great patina from use, this slingshot is in outstanding condition. Used on rodents and birds, these slingshots helped provide food for the people. The artistry of the Baule carvers is evident in the detail of the carving, and the passion that went into decorating everyday items.
PRICE: $69.99

The Bete are an agriculturalist group who live in the southwestern Ivory Coast, between the Bandama and Sassandra rivers. Only the western Bete are known to have a masking tradition, which goes back to the Gla society of the We, and which was adopted by the neighboring Nyabwa. This origin is underscored not only by the use of the Nyabwa language during masquerade dances, but also the fact that every Bete mask wearer is introduced to its use by an initiated Nyabwa.
PRICE: $339.99

Little is known of the Bura civilization, first discovered in 1975, excavations began in 1983. Most of the archeological sites are in what is now Niger. Most of the objects dug up are terracotta heads or vessels. Many of these terracotta heads are fragments from vessels or figures.
PRICE: $199.00

The Chokwe Pwo African art mask is a female mask. When masqueraded, the performance which is for entertainment, a comedy of manners or social satire, is very popular and is open to every one. In present times, it is mostly masqueraded at Christmas celebrations, political rallies or workshops on rural development run by NGOs. The Chokwe Pwo mask can represent (in caricature form) only women in general, but it can also secretly represent a loved one, or be the source of a firm bond between a pwo mask owner and one of his ancestors.
PRICE: $139.99

The Chokwe Pwo African art mask is a female mask. When masqueraded, the performance which is for entertainment, a comedy of manners or social satire, is very popular and is open to every one. In present times, it is mostly masqueraded at Christmas celebrations, political rallies or workshops on rural development run by NGOs.
PRICE: $519.99

The Chokwe Pwo African art mask is a female mask. When masqueraded, the performance which is for entertainment, a comedy of manners or social satire, is very popular and is open to every one. In present times, it is mostly masqueraded at Christmas celebrations, political rallies or workshops on rural development run by NGOs.
PRICE: $519.99

These masks were worn on top of the heads of the Ibo masqueraders in Nigeria. This aged mask is absolutely stunning and even a bit scary. One of the most unique and rare masks that we have ever collected.
PRICE: $394.99

These masks of the Dan people, known as Gunyege masks were also called "racer masks". Historically, these masks were used in a game of chase, where the mask wearer would be chase, and when caught would be beaten. It taught agility to the young warriors. The roles would then be reversed, and the captor would then have his chance to chase the mask wearer and inturn beat him when caught. In present day, these masks are still used, however it is on more of an entertainment level than they were origninally used.
PRICE: $54.99

Appearing during the dry season, the zakpai or fire watcher mask comes to inspect cooking fires and prevent ever-possible threat of extensive destructive fire. They discipline careless women with a switch, knock pots over, and take objects as security for a fine of money, sometimes even beating negligent women. In times past, this mask also acted as a war mask.
PRICE: $294.99