A Fine West African, Ivory Coast, Baule Wood Heddle Pulley (1800 to 2000 West African, Ivory Coast)

Wood

7.00cm wide    18.00cm high    7.00cm deep (2.76 inches wide  7.09 inches high  2.76 inches deep)

Provenance: Purchased May 1949 from Basil Jonzen of the Weekend gallery
Ex collection Charles Milton (1911 - 1993) textile designer and artist
Sold by his descendants at auction 2005

Baule figurative sculpture and Baule masks are among the most celebrated of West African art traditions by virtue of the subtle refinements and carefully rendered detailing applied to them. This heddle pulley with its naturalistic, yet serenely idealised head, was an art form intended to have high visibility and these pulleys were examples of publicly displayed ethnographic works of art 'par excellence'.

A Fine West African, Ivory Coast, Baule Wood Heddle Pulley
The finial carved as a female head with composed face having arched brows and scarification across the forehead and a crescentic crested coiffure with two incised discs above the ears
Old reddish brown patina
Late 19th Century – Early 20th Century

Size: 18 cm high, 7 cm wide, 7 cm deep – 7 ins high, 2¾ ins wide, 2¾ ins deep