Sceptre with male figure eating a root
Life Story
This ivory sceptre is highly carved and depicts a seated male figure eating a root and holding a sheathed knife or sceptre. A snake is entwined round the base of the staff which clasps a lizard-like object in its teeth. The container which surmounts the sceptre was used to contain medicine, and a fragment of conus shell survives intact and may have originated from the Indian Ocean.
Helen Coleman
Entry written for VADS website (www.vads.ac.uk)
Provenance
Purchased by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury from Merton D. Simpson, New York in 1974.
Accessioned into the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia circa 1989.
Not on display
Title/Description: Sceptre with male figure eating a root
Born: 1900 c. - 1999 c.
Object Type: Implement
Materials: Elephant ivory, Organic matter
Measurements: h. 325 x w. 55 x d. 50 mm
Accession Number: 568
Historic Period: 20th century
Production Place: Africa, Congo, Kinshasha
Cultural Group: Kongo
