IDNO

P.170976.GIJ

Description

A close up of a clay sculpture of the spirit Ala in an Mbari house. The head has a painted elaborate headdress with two hair bunches, one on top of the other, highlighted in different colour parallel lines. Her torso is painted in uli patterns. She is holding an ivory horn in her right hand and has her left hand resting on the head of a sculpture of a child. The sculpture of Ala is seated on a plinth. In the background are the painted wall of the central column and buttresses, and a sculpture of an attendant.[Description from record P.762045.GIJ, PB 16/05/2024]

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria; Owerri North; Imo; Ulakwo town

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Oratta Ibo

Named Person

Photographer

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

Collector / Expedition

Date

1936

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.170921.GIJ - P.171076.GIJ were located together in a brown box, now numbered C766/.

P.170934.GIJ - P.171076.GIJ were located in a paper folder now numbered C766/3/.

P.170976.GIJ - P.170977.GIJ are mounted together.

Context: G.I. Jones explains Mbari sculptures on pp 82-92 and Mbari house architecture on p 104 in Jones G.I. The Art of Eastern Nigeria

Bibliographical Reference: G.I. Jones explains Mbari sculptures on pp 82-92 and Mbari house architecture on p. 104 in Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria. (Cambridge: CUP). [PB 09/05/2024]

Context: Detailed notes by G.I. Jones on this house, each figure and the house plan are in the paper folder C766/1. The numbers 1 - 33 on print reverse and mounts relate to these notes and the plan indicates the positions of the figures. [PB 09/05/2024] . Cambridge: CUP.