Ibo Model Chair, Nigeria
Wood
height 17 1/2in (44.4cm); width 12 1/2in (31.7cm); length 10 1/2in (26.7cm)
PROVENANCE
Sotheby's, London, ca. 1980
Private Collection, New York
PUBLISHED
Robbins, Warren and Nancy Nooter, African Art in American Collections, 1984, figure 1443
According to Robbins (ibid. p. 539), "Chairs in Africa, unlike stools, are thought to have been influenced by European models, though each group that makes chairs incorporates its own style elements...
...Such chairs were used not only by elders for seating but also by young women, who danced with chairs borrowed from their grandfathers or other elder male-relatives during initiation ceremonies."
Of exceedingly unusual design, constructed of multiple cross bars and pegs without the use of any binding agent, the ends finished with finely carved human and feline heads.
