African potters--primarily women--handbuild a variety of vessels that they embellish with beautiful colors, designs and motifs before firing them at low temperatures. Containers made for daily use hold water or serve as cooking utensils. They also make vessels to be used in special ceremonies or that become part of an assemblage of objects placed in a shrine.
This figurative vessel may represent a leopard. Similar depictions are found on examples of art from the Bamileke. Images of the double gong, which is used by various regulatory associations throughout the Grassfields, are seldom found on pottery or other traditional art forms. The Mambila, however, who live north of the Grassfields, reproduce the double gong on pottery. Although the Mambila are known for their zoomorphic pottery, their examples are larger and lack handles. While the exact origin of this vessel is unknown, it may be a contemporary example of a prestige object used by traditional Cameroon cultures.
Description:
Pitcher like vessel with an animal head spout and reliefs of double gongs on the body of the vessel.
Provenance:
L. Kahan Gallery, New York, -- to 1990
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