MC1330 Beautiful caryatid stool Luba Shankadi stool Congo DRC

Very nice seat of the central Luba recognizable by the famous cascading hairstyle popular with the Shankadi

We can also see very similar scarifications on the sides of the woman on the stool in the Lisbon museum illustrated in Luba, Neyt, 1993, p81
Seat assigned to a workshop in Malemba Nkulu, in Upemba

Two things are striking in this work, the beauty of the face of the woman represented and the squatting position, really rare, the caryatids being generally either standing, seated or kneeling.

We find this position on a stool sold in 2018 at Dorotheum, Vienna, Austria and we can see an almost identical face on a Shankadi seat from a Sungu workshop, near Kamina (Gallery Kornfeld, Bern, Switzerland in 1979

Stools are the most important symbols of political power

The Luba are a large people of eastern DRC. Their seats with caryatids, their carriers of cups, staffs of chiefs, arrow holders, adzes and cult statues are very famous and among the most prized objects in African Art.

Features:

TYPE OF OBJECT: Stool, seat
ETHNIC GROUP: Luba, Baluba
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Congo DRC
MATERIAL: Wood
DIMENSIONS: Height 46.5 cm

CONDITION: Bad
It looks like the piece was waxed
(see photos)

BIBLIOGRAPHY - BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- LUBA, at the sources of Zaire, François NEYT, Editions du Musée Dapper, 1993.
- LUBA, Visions of Africa, Editions 5 Continents, Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 2006
- MEMORY, Luba Art and the Making of History, Mary Nooter Roberts, 1996

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CONGO DRC

Very nice seat of the central Luba People, recognizable by the famous cascading hairstyle, popular by the Shankadi

Two specificities in this work, the beauty of the woman's face, and the squatting position, really rare, the caryatids being generally, either standing, seated or kneeling

We can also see very similar scarifications on the flanks of the woman on the stool of the Lisbon museum illustrated in Luba, Neyt, 1993, p81
Seat attributed to a workshop in Malemba Nkulu, in the Upemba area

We find this position on a stool sold in 2018 at Dorotheum, Vienna, Austria
And we can see an almost identical face on the photo of a Shankadi seat from a Sungu workshop, near Kamina (Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, Switzerland in 1979

We can see also similar scarifications on the stool

Stools are the most important symbols of political power


The Luba are a great people in eastern DRC. 
Their caryatid seats, their cup holders, chiefs' sticks, arrow holders, adzes and ancestral statues are very famous and among the most valued objects in African Art.


Features:

TYPE OF OBJECT: Stool seat stool
ETHNIC GROUP: Luba Baluba
ORIGIN: Congo Drc
MATERIAL: Wood
DIMENSIONS: About 18 1/4 inches high
CONDITION: Bad
It seems that the stool has been waxed
Please have a look on the pictures