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1965.11.34

Carved wooden figure.

1965.11.34

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Collection type
Object
Description
Carved wooden figure.
Geographical reference
Cameroon
Africa > Central Africa > Cameroon
Bamenda Division Nzerm Village [Babanki]
Cultural groups
Banso
Babanki
Date / Period
Date made: Circa 1910?, uncertain
Date collected
By 1962
Acquisition information
Donated: 1965
Materials and processes
Material Wood Plant, Material Textile, Process Carved, Process Woven
Dimensions
Height: max 280 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1965.11.34
Research and responses

The reference in the accession book entry is to 'A Wood-Carver's Sample', by M. D. W. Jeffreys, in Man, Vol. LXII (November 1962, article 261, pp. 169-70 (photocopy in RDF). A black and white photograph of the figure is also reproduced there as Fig. 1. The complete text reads: 'A Wood Carver's Sample. By Dr. M. D. W. Jefreys, University of the Witwatersrand. With a text figure. While engaged on demarcating the grazing areas of the Banso tribe in the Bamenda division of the erstwhile Southern Cameroons I visited the village head of Nzerm and noticed that the children were playing with a carved wooden object 11 inches in length (fig. 1). Though I had seen African dolls made by Africans for their children, I had never seen one so elaborately carved, and furthermore I had no recollection of seeing dolls in this tribe with which I had been in contact for a / number of years. On asking the village head whether this object was a doll he replied: "No, it is not a doll. You see, when my father was alive a carver from Babanki visited him and offered to do carving for my father and left this object as a specimen of what he could so." It was now clear that what I was looking at was a sample. As I had never before come across "a sample of a carver's work", I purchased it for a shilling. The wood is a soft wood and much worm-eaten. Further enquiiries woul date this specimen as circa 1910. (The photograph mis by Dr. H. Swarts.)' [JC 18 3 2004]

Search terms: Figure, Toy and Game, Specimen, Doll Figure

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