This is the rating and price for A fine and rare Nomoli male figure with crocodile

Description : A fine and rare Nomoli male figure with crocodile carved of soft soapstone, and seated on an oval base with flat feet and openwork body, and holding a crocodile with jaws touching the figure's chin, the large forward projecting head with broad facial features, and decorated with a carved cap (?) at the back and a repeating row of raised chevrons encircling the head; fine and varied grey brown patina. height 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm.) Provenance: Jacob Epstein, London Carlo Monzino Collection Published: Fagg 1960: number 137 Vogel 1986: figure 23 Bassani and Fagg 1988: illustration 104 Bassani 1989: number 10 Exhibited: London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, The Epstein Collection of Tribal and Exotic Art, 25 March-23 April 19 New York, The Center for African Art, African Aesthetics 7 May - 7 September 1986 New York and Houston, The Center for African Art and The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory 1988 Florence, Forte Belvedere, La Grande Scultura Dell'Africa Nera 15 July - 29 October 1989 Soapstone heads and figures like the offered lots have been found buried in the ground in present day Sierra Leone and parts of Liberia and Guinea. The sculptures appear have been made before the mid-sixteenth century by the peoples of the now vanished Sapi kingdoms. Nomoli, as they are called by the Sherbro peoples, frequently were carved with a hole in the top of the head for the insertion of magical ingredients. The composition of this sculpture with a male figure holding a crocodile compares closely to ivories made in coastal Sierra Leone for Portuguese travelers in the Sixteenth century.
Price: 20 300.00 USD It's free to register now to view!
Estimate (low-high) : 6000 USD-9000 USD It's free to register now to view!

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