IDNO

P.73891.GIJ

Description

A base of a wooden pillar with a carved figure. The figure consists of a round head with high etched forehead, slit eyes, nose and mouth, rounded neck, rounded upper torso with one arm upright holding a diamond-shaped paddle, wearing a wrapper. Two animals are carved on each side: a ram? or antelope? and a pangolin. The interior of a building is in the background.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Onitsha province; Nri Awka

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nri Awka

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.73891.GIJ to P.74008.GIJ were kept in box 12, now numbered C339/.

Context: Jones describes the woodcarvers of the Nri Awka area. He writes, “Ibo were skilled woodcarvers, particularly those of Awka and other town in the Nri-Awka group. With their simple tools they were able to cut down iroko and other large hardwood trees and, with the aid of wages, fire, and boiling water, convert them into canoes which seventeenth century travellers described as ‘the largest in the Ethiopias of Guinea’. into their great Ikoro war drums, carved out of the trunks of iroko trees, or the solid doors that closed the entrances of their walled compounds. Smaller pieces of wood were made into troughs and mortars, slit and membrane drums, bowls and dishes of various shapes and and sizes, stools and headrests, clubs and staffs and handles of all sorts. The introduction of cross-cutting and other saws in the late nineteenth century simplified tree-felling and provided the Ibo with planks and deckings to panel the walls of their meeting houses and to increase their range of boxes, chests, benches and lightweight chairs and stools.” (Jones, 1988, pp. 25-26).

Bibliographical Reference:
Jones, G.I. 1988. Ibo Art. (Shire)
Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 4/3/2008]