Fang miniature head, Republic of Gabon Wood, black... Lot 27

Fang miniature head, Republic of Gabon Wood, black patina H. 6,5 cm Miniature Fang head, Gabon H. 2 9/16 in Although the face represented here has all the characteristics of the purest Fang style, its use is less easy to define. There are heads of equivalent size in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille and the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. The former institution presents the object from the former Pierre Guerre collection as the top of a reliquary (angokh-nlo-byeri), while the Parisian museum hypothesizes that it is a "mvet dancer's arm ornament. Whatever its function - an element of a ngombi harp or the top of a cane cannot be ruled out - this miniature's delicacy and age are noteworthy.