?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION--WEST AFRICA.) A fine excavated "lost wax" bronze Kuduo ritual burial jar, made for a King, or someone of great importance. 7.05 x 10 cm; on the sides are two applied images of Middle Passage slave shackles; two holes in the sides; top with holes where a handle was once attached. The surface with uniform green verdigris patina. West Africa, circa 18th to 19th century
a rare west african kuduo (or ritual jar), with the images of two small middle passage shackles applied to the sides. Kuduo like this were created to store a wealthy person's valuable possessions such as gold dust, and functioned as a guardian of their owners' "kra," or life's spirit force. When the person died, these were left at their owners' burial sites along with other personal possessions, in much the same way that the Egyptians did to be of use in the journey to the other world. If the kuduo belonged to a paramount chief or "Oba", it would accompany his ceremonially blackened stool or throne in a special room devoted to his spirit and memory. Provenance: private collection, acquired in Ghana, where it was found. The images of slave shackles suggests the person to whom this belonged was a slave dealer.
