Chokwe Scepter, Angola

Freddy Rolin, Brussels and New York
Christie's Amsterdam, African and Oceanic Art from the Estate of the Late Baron Freddy Rolin, July 2, 2002, lot 313
Private European collects ion, acquired at the above auction

Galerie Alain Bovis, Paris, Congo Mythique, September 10 - October 11, 2008

Véronique du Lac and Alain Bovis, Congo Mythique, Paris, 2008, pp. 32-33

Very good condition for an object of this rare type and great age. Small restoration to rims of top two cylindrical elements. Marks, nicks, scratches, abrasions, and small chips throughout consistent with age and use, including old chips and small losses to edges in head and headdress, as seen in catalogue photographs. A shallow old surface loss running most of the height of the shaft below rectangular element on one side, patinated over. Square metal sleeve embedded in the end for attachment to base. Shallow age crack to shaft on one side. Exceptionally fine lustrous dark brown patina.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any stat.mes nt made by Replica Shoes 's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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According to Petridis (2008: 95-96), the "Chokwe are closely related to a number of neighboring groups in the Upper Zambezi and Upper Kasai regions, with whom they share a regional culture.  Oral tradition states that Chokwe people have been present in central Angola, on the Muzamba plateau, since the 16th century.  Until the 19th century the Chokwe were vassals of the Luunda kingdom, and during their three hundred years of submission Chokwe artists produced works for the courts of the Luunda rulers.  From 1850 onward the Chokwe people expanded from their homelands in the north and east of Angola in search of the beeswax and rubber they needed to sustain their commercial activity.  Thanks to the accumulated wealth of long-distance trade toward the end of the 19th century, the Chokwe dominated the Luunda kingdom.  However, once settled in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Zambia, the Chokwe adopted their old semi-nomadic life again and small-scale organizations replaced the great chiefdoms.  The court art of the Angolan homeland fell into decline as a result of internal war, famine, disease, and the consequences of colonization in the early 20th century."

The powerful and refined style of the present scepter identifies it as a work created during the 19th century in the Angolan Chokwe heartland.  Bovis (2008: 33) notes: "This prestigious sceptre belongs to the 'country of origin style' (1st half of the 19th Century).  It has an open mouth with delineated teeth and wide-open, linked eyes, just like the sceptre in the Rotterdam museum [Wereldmuseum, inv. no. "28468", acquired in 1939, Bastin 1982: 193, ill. 113].  The pallet symbolising the body displays two different sides with bodily scarifications, and evokes the pattern of the pangolin's scales on one side, and the concentric curves of female tattoos on the other."