Lomwe

191. One of only two figures known to have survived from this master carver. The other has been published several times and now resides in the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum (SMPK), Berlin, Germany. This female standing figure measures 35cm tall and as with the other sculpture represents female beauty. Some of the scarification matches up very closely with that on the related example such as the design on the forehead. It is almost identical in scale to the other, being just 0.5cm taller.  This figure has a deeply excavated ear, which may have held a ‘Charge’  or magical substances?

Wood, Iron trade tack eyes, patinated surface. 35cm tall.

Ex U.K. collection. 

Lomwe (Nguru/Anguru) Malawi/Mozambique.

Some information on the other known example:

Inventory number 111E9536. Described as Lomwe (Nguru/Anguru)

Carl Wiese (1860-1912)

Published: Holy (Ladislav),  “Masks and Figures from Eastern and Southern Africa” . Paul Hamlyn, London, 1967.

Published: Carey (Margret), “Myths and Legends of Africa”, London: Hamlyn/Melborne: Sun Books, 1970:133

Published: Krieger (Kurt), “Ostafrikanische Plastik”, Berlin: Museum für Völkerkunde, 1990:65, #460

Catalogue reference: female figure. Model of an Anguru beauty (the parts that the Anguru particularly value are strongly accentuated). Tribal scars and interesting tattoos. Shirwa lake. The cleft of the buttocks is deepened, the tattooing continues on the lower back and the front. The belt is made of white pearls.

35.5cm

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