A large, round, ceremonial food bowl, on a low, square footstand (
Height: c. 4 cm), carved as a single piece from hard, light-coloured wood and dyed black in its entirety. The special quality of this large bowl, which originates with certainty from one of the royal courts in the Cameroon Grasslands (north-west Cameroon), is its decoration, carved out from the same piece, along its exterior, upper rim: on one side is a thick, round handle with a head carved in best Bamum style. More precisely: from the Fumban region. A male head with open, smiling mouth and the characteristic thick chubby cheeks. A masterpiece.

Along the upper rim of the exterior of the bowl – symmetrically depicted on both sides of the object – two crocodiles approach a buffalo head in the middle. In raised relief, almost three-dimensionally carved from a single piece. This bowl – although actually only an ‘object of daily life’ – in the plasticity of its decoration and its accomplished execution is an exceptional example of courtly carved art from the workshops of the royal palaces of the Cameroon Grasslands. This illustrates clearly that only the best carvers of this small kingdom were qualified to work in the palace workshops. A magnificent object of its type, with clearly visible, old usage patina (e.g. at the bottom of the bowl) and only minimal breaks to the upper rim, as well as a few slightly chipped edges. Otherwise, no damage.

Height: 23 cm (head handle); length: 60 cm (both handles); diameter: c. 42 cm (the round bowl alone), c. 50 cm (with rim decoration on both sides). Between c. 1900 and the early 20th century.

Provenance:According to information from the consignor, it was purchased at the site of origin by her grandfather, a hydraulic engineer who worked in Africa since the late 1940s, and brought home. Since then: Austrian private collection. (ME)

Lit.: ‘Kamerun. Kunst der Könige’ by Lorenz Homberger, ill. p. 150, 151 (Bamum heads).