extremely rare & masterly carved wooden object, Yaure / Baule mouse / lizard box

Description: code: 2024-II-AE we see a masterly carved wooden object of unknown purpose,one could say it is a mouse oracle box, a Gbekre Seit is indeed a vessel, but is has no lid and not a second compartment,it does have an entrance hole and the metal plate to close the hollowed-out lower part,maybe an un-finished one, taken off the carver before he had finished it?Or is it a box to keep a mouse or lizard in until the moment they were needed, in our words: a mouse house ?Or did the diviner put both animals in, closed the hole and waited what would happen inside ?We can think of four different things that could happen.......Or is it a recipient for fetish or reliquary material ?Although one might state it is made by the Baule / Baoule / Bawule People,we see it is more as the work of the Yaure / Yaoure / Yohoure People, especially the top is beautiful carved with master carvers skills,and it is known that: "(...) the Baule are not the originators of this type of divination, which does not exist everywhere among them, they admit to having borrowed it from their neighbors the Yaure (...)"the top or handle is carved as a head with an a-symetric high bun style,the face is carved with delicate features,there are scarification marks between the eyebrows, at the temples and both sides of the neck, the "non-lid" is engraved with radiant placed geometric decorated lines, the vessel's body has relief carved decoration of two squares, two carved, mask-like steer / dje heads with horns,two lizards and two four-legged creatures (mice?), of which one forms an arch above the entrance,the metal bottom plate is mostly gone, age: early 20th Century condition: authentic shiny patine, signs of age and handling, stable, some wood cracks, scratches, chips and dents, - do see all the pictures, they are part of the description - max. height circa: 41 cm / 16.1 inch,max. diameter circa: 16 cm / 6.3 inch,weight circa 1556 gr. provenance: a private Dutch collection of African tribal art, collected since 1960 please know: we are no experts on the subject of tribal art, we have done some limited, un-professional research, trying to attribute this object to a land, country, tribe or people and judge the age to the best we could - do judge for yourself the tribal affilation and the correct age - we are selling this item "as is" and we will not accept returns if the buyer finds that we are wrong concerning these matters. free world wide shipping:- this means the shipping costs are included with the sale price- you will be ordering registrated shipment by PostNL from The Netherlands, EU- only according to their conditions and destinations- with insurance offered by PostNL for loss during shipment- shipment out of the EU will be under Incoterm DAP and HS code 970531 we are: delta 98 den haag,The Netherlands, EUregistrated at Chambers of Commerce in The Netherlands / KvK Haaglanden: file 27133335

Price: 6900 USD

Location: 's-Gravenhage

End Time: 2024-08-07T15:42:56.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD