?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(FOLK ART.) Voodoo or "Voudou" staff. Carved hardwood, 36 inches long; with various animals and symbols carved in relief, one inlaid cut glass bead. Several places for other beads empty. Bottom of cane with small piece of fabric with geometric design through which three old iron nails have been driven. [Southern United States], late 19th to early 20th century
Rare "Voodoo" staff with classic West African symbols carved onto the surface. The lizard, crucifix, tree with a bird on top, star, snake winding around the staff with another lizard in its mouth, etc., all are typical symbols that one sees on the paraphernalia of what is generally referred to as "Voodoo." The West African religion that Voudou is derived from is ancient, some believe thousands of years old, entering the Americas with the slaves via the island of San Domingue, called "Hispaniola" or Haiti at different times. It later migrated with slaves to the Gulf States of the Deep South and is especially rooted in Louisiana. The practice is found throughout the Spanish Caribbean as "Santeria." This piece is definitely not a cane or "Walking stick," but rather a staff probably used in some sort of ceremony by a priest or priestess, usually called the "Papa" or "Maman."
