By Carter B. Horsley This spring, Sotheby's again combines Arts of Africa, Oceania and The Americas into one auction as opposed to separate catalogues for African & Oceanic, American Indian and Pre-Columbian Art. The African and Oceanic Arts section of this auction certainly could have stood on their own. Indeed, the African Arts are highlighted by more than 70 works from the quite splendid collection of Lucille and Arnold Alderman but also has enough important consignments from other sources to make this one of the finest Tribal Arts auctions in recent years.
This Aldermans amassed a wonderful collection that is extremely diverse and of consistently very high quality. The most spectacular work is certainly Lot 59, a superb Igbo mask of hollowed conical form, shown at the top of this article, 28 inches high, elaborately carved in low-relief with linear and geometric motifs, the reverse showing a sunburst and a lizard. The mask's upswept pointed flanges leaded to a tiered finial, and the catalogue noted that it has an "exceptional fine surface of kaolin, indigo, red ochre and black pigments." "This unusual and particularly imaginative helmet mask is from the Nsukka area, the northern part of the most complex and diverse masking traditions in Nigeria, perhaps because of the presence of the Mabe and Odo cults. Here one finds a multitude of masks which are independent inventions, such as the present example, which do not fit clearly into a specific type. Particukarly notable on the offered lot is the high level of abstraction and the interplay of form and surface evident in the bold patterning of color." The work's provenance includes Roger Azar and Galerie Leloup, both of Paris. This magnificent, brilliantly colored work, which is the cover illustration of the auction catalogue, has a conservative estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $41,825 including the buyer's premium as do all prices mentioned in this article.
While not as colorful, Lot 50 is no less impressive. It is a fine and rare Kongo oath taking and healing figure that is 31 inches tall. Its eyes are inset with glass and most of the figure is inset with various pegs and nails. The figure has a raised arm that most likely held at some point a blade used for extracting the milk of the palm wine tree and which was believed to have the power to kill by supernatural means. This nkisi nkondi has a blackened face while most similar works have red or white pigment. According to the catalogue black pigment signifies life and white death. A related female figure is in the collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva and this work was exhibited the Museum for African Art in New York from September 24, 1993 to January 9, 1994. The catalogue indicates that it was probably collected before 1900 and was in the Musée de la Porte de Hal by 1902 and then was in the collections of the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren and then in the collection of Baron Freddy Rolin of New York and Brussels before being sold by Sotheby's in New York January 20, 1982. It has a conservative estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $202,000. Another major work is Lot 15, a magnificent Hemba male ancestor figure, 29 7 1/16 inches high that was formerly in the collections of Pierre Dartevelle of Brussels and Lee Bronson of Los Angeles. The figure is missing most of his legs and wears a woven cloth about its hips and has a rounded abdomen and very prominent scalloped clavicles and a large head with very nicely carved features including a dentel-molded beard. What is perhaps most exceptional about this piece is the coiffure at the rear of the head of the figure which has a separation at the rear of the right shoulder. The catalogue notes that "monumental Hemba figures, such as the Alderman example, are called singiti, or ancestral statues. Carved only for chief's and dignitaries, the works were maintained in huts solely created for their protection and they played an extremely important role in the life of the village. The catalogue quotes an expert as classifying the offered lot in the Sayui style, possibly from the village of Mbeya, and very possibly carved for chief Llonda Kasinga Mukelo and possibly by the same sculptor that created a similar ancestor figure formerly in the collection of Baudouin de Grunne and was reportedly collected in the village of Lubundi and carved for chief Liemwe. The catalogue remarked that "these important commissions - for different chiefs within the Baga Mbele group from different villages suggest the carver or atelier was in great demand at the time." As the rather formal and austere work is not in pristine condition, its estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 is a bit ambitious. It sold for $158,000. The Alderman collection abounds in many unusual and really interesting, museum quality works.
Lot 13 is a rare Luba bowl figure, 18 3/4 inches high, with a lovely round head with a cross-hatched coiffure, a long collared neck, and attenuated feet. The figure holds a large bowl and the catalogue quotes an expert as suggesting the figure is a work of the "Master of the Three Rivers" who produced only a few figures and whose work shows an "affiliation with the ateliers at Kabongo and Mwanze. The lot has a modest estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $21,510. The work was acquired from Pace Primitive and Ancient Art of New York.
Lot 14 is a Cameroon Fang female reliquary guardian figure, 16 9 1/16 inches high, that was in the Guy Piazzini collection in Paris and the Kuhn Collection in Los Angeles and was auctioned at Sotheby's Nov. 20, 1991. It has fragmentary feet pieced through the ankles transversely and bound with a braided rope of hair and a large rectangular fetish cavity in the center of her stomach inset with a nail. The figure's head is surmounted by a solitary nail and the face has deeply carved features with an oval mouth inset with iron plugs framed by strips of inset copper and the eyes are raised and inset with circular tacks in deep sockets and the figure has a striated cascading coiffure. The charming figure wears many necklaces on both arms that rest on her knees and has an innocent and somewhat frightened countenance. The lot has a conservative estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It failed to sell as did about a third of the offered lots in this auction. Lot 23 is a rare Ngbandi male figure, 20 7/16 inches high that has remarkably subtle modeling of the hips and legs and a pronounced column of notches above his nose and also in the middle of his chest. The catalogue notes that the Ngbandi are related to the Ngbaka from the Ubangi-Shari region in the northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo and that their figurative figures are usually effigies of the messengers of the Supreme Being, called either Seto and Nabo, considered to be the forefathers of all humans and are exceptionally rare of this size and great age. The work was once in the collection of Max Granich of New York and was auctioned at Sotheby's in New York Nov. 15, 1988. It has a somewhat ambitious estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $113,525.
Of considerably more aesthetic appeal is Lot 32, a fine and rare Ambete pair, the tallest of which is 14 7/16 inches high. The figures have ridged coiffures, shelf-like shoulders and very short forearms and a honey brown patina with encrusted kaolin and areas of black. The catalogue remarked that "according to the information accompanying the figures" they were in the Anatole France Collection in 1904. They were acquired by the Aldermans from Pace Primitive and Ancient Art of New York. They have a conservative estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $32,265.
Two of the most stunning works are Mende female figures, Lots 39 and 40. The former, described in the catalogue as "superb," is a 21 1/4-inch high statue with an elaborately carved girdle around her broad hips, a braided necklace between her breats a ridged neck and a braided turban-like coiffure. The piece has a very fine blackened and resinous patina and the woman has a most serence expression beneath her quite glorious turban. The work was acquired from Pace Primite and Ancient Art of New York and had been sold at Sotheby's Parket-Bernet in New York May 26, 1978. The figure, which is missing its feet, has a modest estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $29,875. Lot 40 is 29 1/4 inches high and also has an very fine patina and is described in the catalogue as "fine." In both figures, the shoulders are almost non-existent and in this lot the face is much more highly abstracted. It has a modest estimate of $12,000 to $15,000. It sold for $32,265. The figure in Lot 40 is somewhat similar to the Bamana female figure, 23 inches high, that is Lot 43. A bit less refined than Lot 40, this work nonetheless has a very interesting treatment of the breasts and chest and head and also has a very large protruding girdle of coiled fiber and mud. It has a very modest estimate of $8,000 to $12,000 and was once with the Leloup Gallery in Paris. It sold for $11,950. Lot 41 is a very intriguing Attie male figure, 30 inches high, that the catalogue describes as rare and comes from the collections of Charles Ratton in Paris, John Dintenfass in New York and was acquired from Pace Primitive and Ancient Art in New York. The figure has an elongated neck and a thin beard and an elaborate bi-lobed coiffure terminating in pointed tips. The work has a fine encrusted dark brown patina and has quite an Oriental feel. It has a conservative estimate of $15,000 to $25,000. It sold for $13,145.
Perhaps the loveliest work in the Aldermans' collection is Lot 49, a "fine and rare Jimini/Ligbi mask that is 10 3/4 inches high. A similar work is, according to the catalogue, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The catalogue unfortunately does not comment upon the symbolism of the figures three noses and three mouths and two eyes but clearly this very sensuous mask of fine dark patina would have turned Modigliani into a Cubist. The catalogue does observed that the facial plane is "of delicate and complex composition" and has two "forward-arching horns." It is exquisite and has a conservative estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $38,837.
Lot 71, "a fine and rare Ejagham Ekpe Society emblem," is a remarkable work of art, 35 inches high, that was posted on either a center post or a wall which demarcated the inner sanctum and it is redolent with mystery and potency. The catalogue notes that William Rubin's catalogue for the 1984 exhibition Primitivism and Twentieth Century Art at the Museum of Art "describes the interface of 20th Century Western Art's collages, or 'assemblages', and the existence of similar work in African art: 'The seeming simplicity and rawness of collage certainly constituted for Picasso a second primitizing reaction, in this case against the hermeticism and belle peinture of high Analytic Cubism. It paralleled that of six years earlier when he had overcome the late Symbolist refinement of his Blue and Rose Period paintings with the primitivism that culminated in the Demoiselles. In the spring of 1912, when Picasso glued a piece of oilcloth on his Still Life with Chair Caning and ordered an 'endless' mariner's rope to go round it in pave of a frame, he not only short-circuited the refined painterly language of Analytic Cubism, but undercut its 'classical' structure by introducing a melange of materials previously considered incompatible with the Fine Arts. His subsequent application of the collage technique to constructed sculpture created the hybrid form known as 'assemblage.' While Picasso's admixture of cloth and rope was unprecedented in the Western tradition, the principle of such melanges was familiar to him in [African] sculptures whose maker soften utilized cloth, raffia, string , bark, metal, mud and found objects in conjunction with wood and other materials.'" This work consists of a matrix of woven cane strips attached to a rattan border and framed by a raffia fringe and the superstructure comprised of two drum-like forms at the center surrounded by fiber and an assemblage of bones, rope, medicinal leaves and abstract wooden carvings. The work comes from the Susan and Jerry Vogel collection of New York and the Leloup Gallery. It has a modest estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $38,240.
Other outstanding lots in the African section of this auction not from the Alderman Collection include the following. Lot 113, a superb Dan spoon, 20 ¾ inches high with a fine patina and considerable sophistication. It has an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $65,725. Lot 123, a "magnificent and rare" Yoruba-Ijebu ivory amulet, 5 inches high. It has an estimate of $125,000 to $175,000 and the catalogue states that this lot is "the only Ijebu bracelet of this age and quality outside of a museum collection to our knowledge. It failed to sell.
Lot 138 is a spectacular pair of Cameroon Fang-Beti reliquary guardians, one male and the other female, 19 ¼ and 21 ¾ inches, respectively. The lot, which comes from a German private collection, has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $306,500.
Lot 141, a fine and rare Cameroon anthrozoomorphic female figure, 19 ¼ inches high. This highly stylized piece has an estimate of $35,000 to $45,000. It failed to sell.
Lot 144, which is the frontispiece of the catalogue, is a rare and important Fang reliquary guardian head. The 9 1/8-inch-high head is very impressive and, according to the catalogue, "is one of only three others known of this style: one formerly in the collections of Charles Ratton, James Johnson-Sweeney and William McCarty-Cooper, a second in the collection of Les Orphélins d'Auteuil in Paris, and a third formerly in the collection of H. H. Prince Sadruddin Aga Kahn. This lot has an estimate of $175,000 to $225,000. It sold for $449,500.
There are only 83 lots in the Pre-Columbian Art section of this auction whereas in past years there would usually be 200 or more. Lot 210 is a Chimu painted gold mask, Sicán, circa A.D. 900-1200, that is 12 inches wide and has traces of red pigment. This piece was once in the collection of Paul Tishman. It has an estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. It sold for $35,850. Lot 211, a Middle Chimu gold beaker, Sicán, circa A.D. 900-1200, 5 ¾ inches high, is the back-cover illustration of the catalogue and has a band of warriors above a band of frogs. It has a modest estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. It sold for $23,900. Lot 213 is the highlight of the Pre-Columbian art section of the auction. It is a large South-Coast wood ceremonial implement, Ica Valley Region, Late Intermediate/Late Horizon, Ca. A.D. 1100-1400. The 89 ¾-inch-high object is carved from algarrobo, a hardwood, and has six figures standing with arms raised and touching hands. "These masterfully carved board," the catalogue stated, "are usually referred to as leeboards or rudders. They have also been identified as enlarged ceremonial versions of agricultural tools or digging sticks, the numerous smaller, utilitarian examples having been found in settlements in the Ica Valley. Made from the large trunks of the hardwood algarrobo or guarango, a desert tree related to the mesquite, these boards are decorated with figures of the nobles who controlled the regions. They are further embellished with the important sea life and waterbirds that were integral to the agricultural productivity of the area." This very handsome object has a conservative estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $59,750. Lot 247 is a very impressive Mezcala stone figure, banded dark and yellow streaked serpentine, Late Preclassic, circa 300-100 B.C., 4 7/8 inches high. "This figure is a rare and perhaps unique depiction of Mezcala ritual activity," the catalogue noted. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $71,700.
This auction has a very good selection of Oceanic art, highlighted by Lot 334, a rare and important Papuan Gulf, Gulf Province, Turamarubi People, female figure, 44 inches high, shown above. This work comes from the Masco Collection and was published in the catalogue of an exhibition of the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1995. It has a modest estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $95,600. Lot 323 is a Vanuatu slit drum, 8 feet 9 inches high that is similar to some at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has a modest estimate of $6,500 to $9,500. It sold for $5,078.
Lot 353, a "superb" Hawaiian basalt pounder, 7 5/8 inches high, is a magnificent abstract sculpture of which Isamu Noguchi would have been proud. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $29,875.
Lot 364, a fine New Caledonian dance headdress, 35 7/16 inches high, is very imposing. It comes from the Masco Collection and the catalogue notes that "it is rare to see a New Caledonian mask with its accoutrements as complete as the Masco example. It failed to sell. Lot 365 is one of the spindly male figures that lean slightly forward from Easter Island, examples of which are currently on view in a splendid small exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see The City Review article). This 15-inch high figure was collected by a Dutch sailor in the 18th Century, according to the catalogue and has a very modest estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. It is carved, the catalogue continued, from the Sophora toromiro tree, which is now extinct. It sold for $26,290.
Lot 383 is a striking and very impressive Maori treasure box, 23 inches long. It has a modest estimate of $45,000 to $55,000. It sold for $77,675. "Elaborate wooden boxes such as this one were the property of Maori chiefs. They were used to hold valuable family heirlooms including the tail features of the huia bird (worn in the hair to indicate rank), combs and nephrite ear and neck pendants. The extremely deep carving on this box, and the interplay of tiki figures attests to the skill of a master carver. Rectangular treasure boxes are rarer than the oval ones and are considered by many people to be of an earlier date," the catalogue noted.